Category Archives: Australia news

Queensland public servants forbidden from including acknowledgments of country in email signatures, Labor says

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Government denies it issued directive, but opposition MP Leeanne Enoch says whistleblower has shared document outlining the decision

Queensland’s Labor opposition claims the state’s public servants have been issued a “strict directive” not to include acknowledgments of country in email signatures.

The shadow minister for reconciliation, Leeanne Enoch, tabled a partly redacted document in question time on Thursday which reads: “Departments are no longer permitted to add additional departmental branding elements such as the First Nations acknowledgement.”

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A rising proportion of Australian students aren’t going to school – and there’s not just one way to get them back, report says

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Exclusive: Report from Independent Schools Australia calls for data collection on student school refusal to better tackle rising absenteeism

A new report has urged the federal government to collect national data on chronic absenteeism and embed layers of support in schools to tackle Australia’s growing student attendance crisis.

The report, provided exclusively to Guardian Australia by Independent Schools Australia (ISA), drew from interviews with academics, mental health clinicians and teachers. It called on the government to implement a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) to better support children struggling to stay in school.

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Cassius Turvey’s murder has ‘torn at the very fabric of our society’, his mother tells court

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Heinous and ‘racially motivated’ attack on Indigenous teenager left mother and community traumatised, court hears

The murder of an Indigenous teenager who was chased into bushland and beaten with a metal pole during a heinous racist attack has shattered lives and left a community living in fear, his heartbroken mother has said.

Cassius Turvey, a Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after he was deliberately struck on the head in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October 2022.

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Student allegedly hacked Western Sydney University to get discounted parking and alter academic results

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Police allege the woman’s hacking escalated to allegedly threatening to sell confidential student data on the dark web

A former Western Sydney University student allegedly waged a four-year hacking campaign on the institution which began as an attempt to secure discounted parking on campus and culminated in her threatening the sale of student information on the dark web.

The 27-year-old was arrested on Wednesday and charged with 20 offences including accessing or modifying restricted data on a computer, dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, and unauthorised modification of data with intent to cause impairment.

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Nearly a third of Tuvalu citizens enter ballot for climate-linked visa to relocate to Australia

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Thousands from Pacific island nation under threat from rising seas enter ballot that awards visas to 280 citizens a year world-first deal

Almost a third of citizens in the Pacific nation of Tuvalu are seeking a landmark visa in the context of climate change to live in Australia as rising seas threaten their palm-fringed shores, official figures show.

Australia is offering visas to 280 Tuvalu citizens each year under a climate migration deal Canberra has billed as “the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world”.

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NSW MP Gareth Ward likened to ‘vampire running a blood bank’ by alleged sexual assault victim, court hears

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State MP’s alleged victim spurred to action after learning politician had been appointed as families minister, court hears

A court has heard a New South Wales state MP’s alleged sexual abuse victim was spurred to action after learning the politician had been appointed as families minister, which he likened to a vampire running a blood bank.

The Kiama MP, Gareth Ward, 44, is on trial in the NSW district court after pleading not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and indecent assault charges.

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Contempt proceedings against SMH and Age staff in Lattouf case ‘probably doomed’, Nine’s lawyers argue

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Pro-Israel lobbyists allege newspaper editors Bevan Shields and Patrick Elligett are among eight individuals who broke name suppression order

A request by pro-Israel lobbyists to launch contempt proceedings against editors and reporters from Nine for allegedly breaching a suppression order in Antoinette Lattouf’s unlawful termination case is “probably doomed”, Nine’s lawyers have argued in the federal court.

The editors of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age – Bevan Shields and Patrick Elligett – are among eight individuals, including lawyers, named in the request.

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Gout Gout breaks his own 200m national record in latest stunning run

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  • 17-year-old lays down time of 20.02s on senior European debut

  • Cam Myers, 19, and Peter Bol also shine on strong night for Australia

The records keep falling for Gout Gout after the 17-year-old sprint sensation announced himself on the senior international stage with a new Australian benchmark of 20.02s over 200m at the Ostrava Golden Spike meet in the Czech Republic.

Gout remains on course to go sub-20s as he bettered his own national record in a field stacked with high-quality sprinters, chasing down and then roaring past Reynier Mena over the final 20m to cross the line 0.17s ahead of the Cuban, with Briton Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake third.

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YouTube fires back amid push to include platform in Australia’s under-16s social media ban

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Online video hosting service accuses the nation’s online safety boss Julie Inman Grant of ignoring parents and teachers

YouTube has criticised calls for it to be included in the under-16s social media ban, accusing the nation’s online safety boss of ignoring parents and teachers.

The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has urged the government to rethink its decision to carve out the video sharing platform from the minimum social media age which will apply to apps such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.

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Don’t believe the hype: Victorian government deserves credit for not buckling to aggressive pro-gas campaign

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Australia’s most gas-reliant state takes a significant step to move households and businesses away from fossil fuels and cut energy bills

It didn’t go as far as previously flagged, but don’t believe the negative hype about Victoria’s plan to start weaning off gas: it is a significant step that will help drive households and businesses away from fossil fuels and cut energy bills.

The Allan Labor government announced that gas heating and hot water systems will be banned in all new homes and nearly all new commercial buildings, including schools and hospitals, from 1 January 2027. They will not be connected to the state’s gas network and will run on electric systems. New agricultural and manufacturing buildings, some of which use gas for high-temperature industrial processes, are excluded.

Though still marketed as “natural”, and sometimes even as “clean”, gas is actually methane – a highly potent fossil fuel. It releases plenty of greenhouse gas when burned. The electricity grid is moving from being dominated by coal-fired power to renewable energy. Electric appliances are better for the planet and the people who live on it. It is a necessary part of getting to net zero emissions.

Gas is expensive. Analysis has found electrification of appliances should save households nearly $1,000 a year on their energy bills. There are upfront costs in getting new systems, but the Victorian policy is not forcing people to change over until their existing system is dead, and offers rebates to help with the change.

Victoria is running out of gas. For decades, it has relied on reservoirs in Bass Strait, but they are running low, and all potential new sources are expensive. The state government wants to install a 20-year floating liquified natural gas (LNG) import terminal near Geelong to make sure demand is met. It sounds ridiculous, but may be the least bad option available – after the most obvious one: reducing gas use as much as possible so that it is available for the few industrial processes that do not yet have viable alternatives.

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Lehrmann seeks to halt Toowoomba rape case and claims police ‘illegally obtained’ his lawyers’ phone calls

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Former Liberal staffer accused of raping a woman after meeting her at a strip club in Queensland in 2021

Bruce Lehrmann has sought to halt a rape case against him, claiming that police “illegally obtained” his lawyers’ phone calls.

Lehrmann, 30, is accused of raping a woman twice during the morning of 10 October, 2021 after they met at a strip club the previous night in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

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Erin Patterson trial jury urged to put aside sympathy for mushroom lunch guests and ignore ‘unprecedented’ media attention

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Judge begins charge to jurors, saying they must weigh evidence against triple murder accused ‘with an open mind, not according to your feelings’

The judge in Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial has urged the jury to put aside any sympathy they may feel for her lunch guests and continue to ignore unprecedented media attention in the case.

Justice Christopher Beale started his charge to the jury on Tuesday at the Latrobe Valley law courts in Morwell, Victoria. It was expected the charge, or jury directions, would take at least two days, before the jury retired to consider its verdict.

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Aukus vital to ‘deter Chinese aggression’, say US lawmakers, as Trump urged to recommit to submarine deal

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Alliance in best interests of Australia, UK and US, say lawmakers, after Trump administration announced 30-day review of pact

The Aukus pact is vital to “deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region”, Republican and Democrat lawmakers in the US have told the Pentagon, urging the US to recommit to the nuclear submarine deal with Australia and the UK.

The Trump administration announced this month it would undertake a 30-day review of the Aukus agreement – the deal struck in 2021 that would see US nuclear submarines sold to Australia, and new-design nuclear-powered Aukus submarines built in the UK and Australia.

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Australian passenger disruption as airlines delay or cancel flights after Iran’s attack on US base in Qatar

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Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong said there had been ‘disruptions to flights with temporary airspace closures in the region’

The Albanese government and airlines are warning passengers in Australia of flight delays and disruptions after Iran’s strike on a US base in Qatar resulted in several countries closing their airspace.

In a post to X on Tuesday morning, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said there had been “disruptions to flights with temporary airspace closures in the region”.

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Queensland budget 2025: Crisafulli vows no austerity despite state facing $218bn debt

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Premier says you can ‘respect people’s money’ and still lift public services as LNP hands down first budget since 2014

The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, has promised no austerity in his first budget, despite the state facing a forecast $218bn in debt.

Tuesday’s state budget will be the Liberal National party’s first since 2014. Then led by premier Campbell Newman, the LNP lost government in 2015 after slashing tens of thousands of public service positions and proposing the sell-off of public assets to balance the books.

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NSW upper house president seeks advice from Bret Walker over possible political staffer arrests

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High-profile barrister consulted over arrest warrants for five government staffers who did not attend inquiry into Dural ‘fake terrorism plot’

The president of the New South Wales upper house has sought advice from high-profile barrister Bret Walker SC over whether he can seek arrest warrants for government staffers who failed to give evidence to an inquiry examining the Sydney caravan “fake terrorism plot”, Guardian Australia understands.

Ben Franklin is expected to reveal on Tuesday whether he intends to seek arrest warrants from the NSW supreme court for five staffers who were summoned to appear before the inquiry on Friday, but did not attend. Three are from the office of the premier, Chris Minns, and two work for the police minister, Yasmin Catley.

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Plutonium levels at nuclear test site in WA up to 4,500 times higher than rest of coast, study finds

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Researchers say contamination found at Montebello Islands is part of fallout from 1950s British tests and will persist for thousands of years

Samples of marine sediment taken from the location of three 1950s British government nuclear bomb tests off the coast of Western Australia have revealed plutonium levels up to 4,500 times higher than the rest of the coastline.

Sixty six samples were taken from the shallow waters at the Montebello Islands, and scientists are now working to understand how marine life may be being affected by the sediment.

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Governments are leaving ‘heavy lifting’ on Closing the Gap to underresourced Aboriginal groups, review finds

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‘Inaction’ from governments and ‘baked in’ racism are hampering efforts to address entrenched disadvantage, according to first independent review

Australian governments are failing to do “the heavy lifting” needed to address entrenched disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, an independent review of the national Closing the Gap strategy has found.

The review by the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney is the first to independently assess the implementation of the Closing the Gap agreement since its establishment in 2008.

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