Indigenous elder removed from Barack Obama event for being ‘too difficult’

Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy was due to give the welcome to country for former US president in Melbourne before allegedly being stood down

An Indigenous elder has been barred from giving the welcome to country at a speaking event by former US president Barack Obama because she was allegedly being “too difficult”.

Aunty Joy Murphy was scheduled to welcome Obama to Wurundjeri land before the event in Melbourne on Wednesday night on the latest leg of his speaking tour of Australia.

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Australia politics live: rate rises must stop with inflation coming down, Greens say; Brereton named anti-corruption commissioner

Commission appointments must be signed off by the governor general. Follow live

Sorry – I am told by a couple of senators that it was “technically” 4.13am.

So expect to see a few bleary-eyed senators in the coffee lines this morning.

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Australian man finds gold nugget worth $250,000 in Victoria

Prospector discovers 4.6kg nugget using metal detector as gold prices near global record highs

More than 170 years since Australia’s gold rush ended, one man has unearthed a nugget worth almost $250,000 in Victoria’s goldfields.

The man found the 4.6kg gold rock using an amateur metal detector in Victoria’s “golden triangle” between Bendigo, Ballarat and St Arnaud.

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Nazi salute will be captured in proposed ban on hate symbols, Queensland government says

New bill also aims to ensure those who commit crimes motivated by prejudice face tougher penalties

Queensland’s attorney general has confirmed the Nazi salute will be captured under proposed laws that ban hate symbols and strengthen the state’s response vilification.

Shannon Fentiman said she had been “shocked” by the presence of Nazis at an anti-trans protest in Melbourne earlier this month.

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Queensland house where girl, 13, was allegedly tortured burns to the ground

Police believe the Sunshine Coast home may have been set alight early Wednesday morning

The Queensland home where a girl was allegedly held against her will and tortured has been burnt to the ground days after vigilante threats to firebomb the property.

Police believe the home on the Sunshine Coast may have been set alight in the early hours of Wednesday.

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Senate inquiry to investigate support for Australians with ADHD

Greens senator Jordon Steele-John says people with condition struggle with ‘cost, wait time and stigma’

Assessment and support services for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder will be the subject of parliamentary scrutiny after the Australian Senate backed a Greens proposal for an inquiry on the issue.

The Senate community affairs references committee will examine barriers to “consistent, timely and best practice assessment” of ADHD and related services, including the adequacy of access to diagnosis and support, biases inherent in ADHD assessment and research, and the cost of medication.

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Australia’s annual inflation rate falls to 6.8% fuelling hopes cost of living pressures are easing

Figures indicate Reserve Bank may consider pausing interest rates at its next meeting on Tuesday

Australia’s annual inflation rate slowed in February, led by smaller rises for fuel and housing, adding to evidence that the worst of the price increases has passed.

The consumer price index rose at annual pace of 6.8% last month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Wednesday. Economists had expected the annual rate would have dropped to about 7.2% from January’s 7.4% pace.

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Rupert Murdoch has fuelled polarisation of society, Barack Obama says

Former US president tells Sydney audience that media coverage has helped exacerbate divisions and that we no longer have a ‘shared story’

The former US president Barack Obama has suggested that Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has led to greater polarisation in western societies through news coverage designed to “make people angry and resentful”.

Speaking to a capacity crowd of about 9,000 people at Sydney’s Aware Super Theatre on Tuesday night, Obama mixed childhood memories of transiting through Australia as a child with pointed observations about the current political discourse and the rise of China.

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Queensland police say there is no footage of shooting death of Indigenous man

Family of Aubrey Donahue had requested body-worn camera vision of incident in Mareeba but police say none exists

Queensland police say no body-worn camera footage captured the moment an Aboriginal man was fatally shot, despite more than 15 officers being present.

Family members of Aubrey Donahue, 27, say he was unarmed, holding a mobile phone and attempting to surrender to police when he was shot four times by tactical officers in the north Queensland town of Mareeba.

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Greens, Coalition and entire crossbench unite to force inquiry into ‘broken’ FOI system

Senate to investigate after resignation of commissioner Leo Hardiman, who cited his lack of powers to make changes to fix delays

The Greens, Coalition and crossbench have teamed up to set up an inquiry into the freedom of information commissioner’s resignation over dysfunction and delays in the FOI system.

The FOI commissioner, Leo Hardiman, announced his resignation earlier in March citing his lack of powers to make changes necessary to improve the timeliness of reviews of FOI decisions.

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Daniel Andrews begins meetings in Beijing amid claims of Australian media exclusion

Victoria’s opposition accuses premier of snubbing education leaders while union says absence of journalists on China trip is ‘disturbing’

Daniel Andrews has begun a series of meetings in Beijing as part of a four-day trip to China amid criticism from home over the exclusion of Australian journalists and education leaders, and the limited information provided about the visit.

The Victorian opposition has accused the premier of snubbing industry leaders from the higher education sector by not having them join him on a visit designed to entice Chinese students back to the state.

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Charlie Teo accused of giving ‘opportunistically untruthful’ evidence

Controversial neurosurgeon’s claim a patient’s husband was ‘hoodwinked’ into making a complaint against him showed ‘lack of empathy’, inquiry also told

The controversial neurosurgeon Charlie Teo has been accused of giving “opportunistically untruthful” evidence to a medical disciplinary board as well as lacking empathy and insight.

Teo appeared before a Health Care Complaints Commission inquiry in Sydney on Tuesday to defend brain tumour surgeries he performed on two women, from which they never recovered and died soon after.

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National reconstruction fund secures crossbench support – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

Pesutto gives no answer on if Deeming can continue to promote anti-trans views as part of Liberals

But John Pesutto also can’t answer whether Moira Deeming can continue to campaign against trans rights – a stance Deeming had before she was in the parliament and a key feature of her first speech to the Victorian parliament.

Look, what what I have always said from the very start, is that as leader of the Victorian Liberal party, I want public debate not just in the state but nationally, to be respectful and civil and courteous, and to be inclusive so that people can participate in discussions.

I am a supporter of free speech, but any connection of the Liberal party with people who share platforms with people who are extremely … people in hate speech is a concern to me and will never be acceptable in the party.

Well, I’m not happy with those tweets, and they’re very great concern and will represent if that continues, it will obviously represent a real problem going forward for Moira to return the [party].

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Latitude Financial faces possible class action after millions affected by data breach

Cyber-attack in which information of 14 million customers has been exposed dubbed Australia’s largest to date

Latitude Financial Services could face a class action lawsuit from some of the 14 million customers who have had their personal information exposed in what has been dubbed Australia’s largest data breach.

Law firms Gordon Legal and Hayden Stephens and Associates announced on Tuesday they would investigate a potential legal action against Latitude over the breach.

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Planets aligned: how to see the astronomical phenomenon set to light up Australia’s sky

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus will be in alignment near the moon and visible using binoculars from Tuesday evening

A planetary alignment is set to light up Australia’s night sky.

Five planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus – will be in alignment near the moon from Tuesday evening.

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Australian TV networks criticise Meta over ‘inadequate’ response time to damaging scam ads

Seven, Nine and Ten tell Senate inquiry that scam ads on Facebook featuring their stars or fake news stories are causing harm to consumers

Australia’s broadcast industry group has condemned Facebook’s parent company Meta over its handling of scam ads featuring TV stars including David Koch and Karl Stefanovic, saying the company’s response time is inadequate and damages broadcaster reputations.

Free TV Australia – which represents broadcasters including Seven, Nine and Ten – said in a submission published this month to a Senate inquiry into digital platforms that scam ads featuring their networks’ stars without the network or star’s knowledge or authorisation, and fake news stories had been causing harm to consumers over the past few years.

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NSW Labor sweats on possibility of minority government as jostle for Liberal leadership begins

Incoming Minns government will have an interim cabinet sworn in as counting continues in key seats

The rival left and right factions of the New South Wales Liberals look set to face off in a contest over who becomes the state’s next opposition leader, as the incoming Labor government sweats on a handful of undecided seats to see whether it will govern in a majority.

As counting resumed on Monday, Labor’s chances of forming majority government in the new parliament were in the balance after the inclusion of pre-poll votes saw it fall behind in the seat of Terrigal on the state’s central coast.

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Dominic Perrottet, Matt Kean and the lure of Canberra: what next for NSW power duo?

While Kean has ambitions to move into federal politics, the outgoing premier’s friends say the more likely direction for him is business

Could Dominic Perrottet and his former treasurer Matt Kean continue their double act as the moderate-right New South Wales power duo in Canberra?

Kean has made no secret of his ambition to move to federal politics and on Sunday ruled out contending for the leadership of the NSW opposition, further fuelling speculation.

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Youpla victims asking ‘when they should die’ to be eligible for funeral relief, advocates say

Government urged to give ‘certainty’ to more than 13,000 Aboriginal policy holders of defunct fund

Terminally ill Aboriginal people are asking “when they should die” in order to be eligible for emergency relief set up after the financial collapse of a predatory funeral scheme left thousands of vulnerable Indigenous families without the means to pay for a funeral.

First Nations advocates and victims are urging the federal government to give “certainty” to the more than 13,000 Aboriginal policy holders of the defunct ACBF-Youpla funeral fund as soon as possible.

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Australian youth vaping rates higher than previously thought, study suggests

A third of people under 30 have used e-cigarettes while 14% say they currently vape, according to new research

National youth vaping rates are higher than previously thought and those with friends who vape are most susceptible, according to a study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

A national sample of 1,006 people aged 15–30 years were surveyed about their use of tobacco and vaping products, motivations, how they obtained e-cigarettes, exposure to others’ vaping, exposure to e-cigarette advertising and perceptions of harms associated with e-cigarettes.

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