The 2021 Riddoch Pastoralist beats wines from more than 20 other countries at the International Wine Challenge
A South Australian cabernet sauvignon that sells for $40 (£21) has been named the best in the world at the International Wine Challenge.
The 2021 Riddoch Pastoralist beat wines from more than 20 other countries to win the International Cabernet Sauvignon trophy.
Continue reading...NSW Fire and Rescue say it will be a ‘substantial and very prolonged’ effort of firefighting to extinguish the blaze completely
An “apocalyptic” blaze engulfed a building near Central station in Sydney on Thursday afternoon, sending a massive plume of smoke into the air and causing parts of the building to collapse.
More than 100 firefighters worked to contain the massive fire. Fire and Rescue NSW said it would be a “substantial and very prolonged” effort to extinguish the blaze completely.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Former NSW police commissioner and now PwC partner Mick Fuller contacted his friend the AFP commissioner after scandal broke, Senate estimates told
PwC has agreed to a federal government order to stand down all employees involved in the alleged misuse of confidential information from government work, responding to concern the problem is “significantly broader” than one partner at the firm.
The public service has stepped up its response to PwC for sharing confidential tax policy information to drum up business, with the head of Treasury referring the matter to police and finance ordering staff “directly involved in, or who had knowledge of, the significant breach” to be stood down.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Australian Energy Regulator says power bills would have gone up twice as fast without government intervention
Electricity prices will rise by up to a quarter in July in some states after the Australian Energy Regulator issued its decision on the default market offers that set the baseline for retailers.
But the AER says this is about the half the hike that might have happened without government intervention.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...This blog is now closed.
Watts: Indigenous ‘voices were not heard’ in a parliament which allowed ‘large-scale extrajudicial killings’
Watts went on to say he was grappling with his ancestor’s legacy.
He was a member of the Queensland parliament’s inquiry into the actions of the Queensland native police in 1861.
There were no Aboriginal or Strait Islander peoples invited to give evidence to this inquiry, neither native police troopers nor members of the broader community.
In the decades following the arrival of my ancestor, disease, violence and forced resettlement literally decimated the local Indigenous population.
This alone is a disturbing legacy to grapple with. Regrettably though, it was John Watts’ legacy and his actions as a parliamentarian that caused even greater harm to Indigenous peoples of south-east Queensland.
Historian Jonathan Richards described the operations of the Queensland native police in the following terms: ‘When an attack of any form was made on settlers, the native police responded by tracking Aboriginal people to their camps. Once they had been located, the troopers surrounded the camp, firing their rifles into the sleeping people at dawn. The bodies were usually burnt to cover up the killings.’
Historians’ estimates of the number of Indigenous Australians killed by the Queensland native police range widely, from 10,000 up to 60,000 people, but it was clear that there were many thousands of murders and rapes committed by this state-sanctioned organisation.
Continue reading...Commissioner says dismissal was a disproportionate response but it was appropriate that imaging technician be denied back pay and issued final warning
A New South Wales police employee who was sacked for telling striking rail workers “get back to work you bludgers” and pushing a barricade towards them has had his job reinstated.
The employee, John Fleming, said he was frustrated when he walked past rail workers who were “sitting outside at a cafe drinking coffee and … having a laugh and enjoying themselves because of the inconvenience they were causing me and other rail commuters” in February last year.
Continue reading...Severe weather warnings for wind gusts of up 100km/h issued for Tasmania, Victoria and NSW, BoM says
A cold front is set to sweep across Australia’s south-east in the coming days, bringing icy winds and steep drops in temperature.
The front is brushing the southern tip of Western Australia and is expected to strengthen and intensify as it approaches south-eastern Australia.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani was convicted of bribing two Nauruan officials with more than $120,000
The former Australian government continued to pay millions of taxpayer dollars to a businessman convicted of corruption to provide offshore processing services on Nauru, even after he had pleaded guilty to bribing Nauruan government officials.
In August 2020 Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani was convicted of paying more than $120,000 in bribes to two Nauru government officials, including an MP and government minister, for favourable deals on phosphate mining contracts for his Radiance International group of companies.
Continue reading...‘We are not going to allow the lights to go off,’ state energy minister Penny Sharpe vows
New South Wales’ two main renewable energy zones will be delayed for as long as two years and cost more to build with landholder opposition to new transmission lines partly to blame, the energy minister, Penny Sharpe, has said.
The Minns government briefed journalists about its network infrastructure strategy on Wednesday, revealing that the central-west Orana zone would not hit its “energisation date” until 2027-28, compared with an initial 2025 target. Similarly, the New England zone will now start in 2029 compared with an initial 2027 goal.
Continue reading...Former attorney general received confidential information while in office and has said he will not act for Clive Palmer, senators hear. Follow the day’s news live
Cricket builds friendship between Australia and India, says Albanese
Narendra Modi described the Australia-India relationship last night as the three Cs – commonwealth, cricket and curry, the three Ds – diaspora, democracy and dosti (Bollywood film series and friendship) and the 3Es – economy, energy and education.
There is always a discussion about cricket when Australians and Indians gather and I did get the experience of being day one of the fourth test for a brief time with Prime Minister Modi. It was quite an experience in the world’s biggest stadium there in March and Australians and Indians are very passionate about their cricket but it is part of the way that we build our friendship between our two nations.
Continue reading...Tech firm founded by Australians Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar says net zero must be achieved by cutting emissions by 90% and only offsetting the remainder
As corporate reports go, the title of Aussie tech firm Atlassian’s guide for other companies to cut their greenhouse gas emissions is as direct and flavoursome as they come: “Don’t F&*! The Planet.”
The firm, founded by Australians Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, says it is already running its operations on 100% renewable electricity and has a “science-based target” to reach net zero emissions no later than 2040.
Continue reading...Dr Kay Patterson questions whether mental health team would be more appropriate while David Shoebridge says police tools are ‘wrong resource’
The age discrimination commissioner has said the deployment of police officers to respond to incidents in aged care homes should be reviewed after the Tasering of 95-year-old Claire Nowland.
Nowland, who weighs 43kg and lives with dementia, was Tasered by police after she was found armed with a steak knife in her home at an aged care facility in Cooma. She is in end-of-life care at Cooma district hospital after the incident caused her to fall and sustain life-threatening head injuries.
Continue reading...Federal police try to identify crime syndicate behind elaborate smuggling scheme into NSW, after drugs found at port inspection in Sydney
More than 300kg of methamphetamine concealed deep inside a steel hydraulic press has been smuggled into New South Wales from Mexico.
Australian federal police say the seized haul has an estimated value of more than $273m and could have made up 3m individual street deals.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...David Littleproud left parliament early in February to travel to the Gold Coast, three days after he and his spouse settled on a new apartment there
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has repaid travel expenses he claimed after leaving parliament early to travel to the Gold Coast in February.
In a statement Littleproud said he had “mistakenly sought the wrong advice” and “incorrectly” re-entered Queensland in between sitting weeks via the Gold Coast.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Body of Melbourne lawyer Jake Herd found at high altitude in poor weather near Big Almaty Lake
An Australian tourist who was missing for three days in mountains in Kazakhstan has been found dead, authorities in the central Asian country said on Tuesday.
Police said they had found the body of Melbourne lawyer Jake Michael Herd, born in 1995, near Big Almaty Lake in the Tian Shan mountains at an altitude of about 2,500m.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Australian-born artist and musician was jailed for sexual assaults on children after a 50-year career as one of Britain’s best-known TV performers
The entertainer Rolf Harris, whose career as one of the best-loved performers on British TV ended in the disgrace of convictions for indecent assault on teenage girls, has died aged 93.
In October 2022, it was reported that Harris had neck cancer and was barely able to speak. His death was confirmed by a registrar at Maidenhead town hall, close to his family home in the Berkshire village of Bray.
Continue reading...Australian PM announces cricketer Adam Gilchrist as board member of new centre for Australia-India relations in Parramatta
Thousands of members of Australia’s Indian community have given a rapturous stadium welcome to Anthony Albanese and Narendra Modi as a new centre for Australia-India relations was announced for Sydney’s west.
The two prime ministers were constantly cheered at the Olympic Park rally on Tuesday evening ahead of more formal talks between the pair planned for Wednesday.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...New tax measures and job cuts to help repay state’s Covid debt spark criticism from multiple groups
Victorian private schools are among a chorus of critics of the state’s latest budget, after payroll exemption for schools with “high fees” was cut and landlords and big businesses were hit by new taxes.
To help repair the state’s budget bottom line, the Andrews government on Tuesday revealed more than 100 private schools will no longer be shielded from payroll tax in a budget measure the opposition and independent education sector warns will lead to higher fees for parents.
Continue reading...Murdoch’s Australian media chief calls on ABC to ‘correct the record’ after accusations that excessive coverage encouraged racist social media trolls
Rupert Murdoch’s top executive in Australia has defended News Corp’s reporting of the ABC’s coronation broadcast and denied it played a part in Stan Grant’s decision to stand down from hosting Q+A after becoming the target of racist attacks.
News Corp Australasia chief executive Michael Miller responded to an interview on Monday in which the ABC news director Justin Stevens accused News Corp of targeting the ABC because the public broadcaster threatened its business model.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...A UN anti-torture subcommittee suspended its inspections last year after being refused access to some facilities
The Queensland government has passed a bill to remove legislative barriers that prohibited UN officials from visiting places of detention during their visit to Australia last year.
A UN anti-torture subcommittee suspended its tour of Australian detention facilities in October after Guardian Australia revealed Queensland refused access to some mental health facilities that hold people charged with crimes, while New South Wales blocked inspectors from entering all of its detention facilities.
Continue reading...