Category Archives: Australia news

Antarctic science expedition put on ice due to problems with Australia’s research vessel Nuyina

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Ocean voyage to study declining sea ice levels cancelled after RSV Nuyina required repairs leaving climate scientists dismayed

A major scientific expedition to urgently assess record-low sea ice levels in Antarctica has been cancelled due to ongoing repairs on Australia’s icebreaking vessel, RSV Nuyina, with climate scientists expressing disappointment at “Band-Aid” solutions.

US scientists have this week reported that the floating ice around the continent – which protects melting glaciers from currents and warmer waters – has reached the lowest level ever recorded, in part due to unprecedented heatwaves in recent years.

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Australians able to opt out of targeted ads and erase their data under proposed privacy reforms

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Individual rights could be modelled on the EU’s general data protection regulation or GDPR, a review by the attorney general’s department says

Australians would gain greater control of their personal information, including the ability to opt out of targeted ads, erase their data and sue for serious breaches of privacy, under a proposal to the Albanese government.

On Thursday the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, will release a review conducted by his department into modernisation of the Privacy Act which calls to expand its remit to small businesses and add new safeguards for use of data by political parties.

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Revealed: more Australians than ever are paying to see a doctor as new data shows worst hit areas

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Exclusive: Data obtained by Guardian Australia reveals the areas suffering the biggest drop in fully bulk-billed GP patients

The number of Australians who are fully bulk billed by their GP has dropped significantly in just three years, with one electorate experiencing a decline of 18%, a Guardian Australia investigation reveals.

Experts say the decline of bulk billing – where the full cost of a consultation is paid for by Medicare without any additional gap fees – is putting serious strain on overstretched emergency departments and other health services.

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Kevin Rudd: Australia’s incoming ambassador to US says balloon saga threatens push to ease tensions with China

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Former Labor prime minister says incident has created ‘diplomatic clouds’ that may overshadow efforts to stabilise relationship

The incoming Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, has warned the Chinese balloon saga has created new “diplomatic clouds” that put at risk recent efforts to ease tensions between Beijing and Washington.

In a speech in Brisbane on Wednesday, Rudd also warned against expecting any “softening in China’s ideological cleavage with the west”.

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Australia politics live: Philip Lowe says RBA ‘still unsure’ how high interest rates will go during Senate estimates grilling

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RBA boss tells Senate estimates about rationale for rate rises as Adam Bandt demands end to new coal and gas projects. Follow live

Around and around we go …

So CBA shareholders are to get a (fully franked) dividend of $2.10 for each of their share – 20% more than the last time dividends were sent out.

We reported strong financial and operational performance in our financial results for the six months ended 31 December 2022. Our cash net profit after tax of $5,153 million reflects the Bank’s customer focus and disciplined strategic execution. Our continued balance sheet strength and capital position creates flexibility to support our customers and manage potential economic headwinds, while delivering sustainable returns to shareholders. A fully franked interim dividend of $2.10 per share was determined, an increase of 20% on 1H22, driven by organic capital generation and a reduction in share count from share buy-backs. Despite the current uncertainty, your Board and management feel optimistic for the future and are committed to delivering for our customers and for you, our shareholders

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Philip Lowe says interest rate rises painful but for the best, predicting more to come

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Inflation is dangerous, corrosive and hurts people, RBA governor tells Senate estimates

The Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, says he has heard about the personal pain caused by soaring interest rates with a “very heavy heart” – but tackling “dangerous” inflation was critical even if the moves were unpopular.

Lowe, making his first public appearance for 2023 before Senate estimates on Wednesday, reiterated the challenges of achieving a “fairly soft landing” for the economy with unemployment rising only to 4.5% during next year.

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Matt Kean backs push to outlaw gay conversion practices in NSW

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Leading Coalition moderate says he supports the concept but is waiting to see Alex Greenwich’s bill

The New South Wales treasurer, Matt Kean, says he “wholeheartedly” supports a push to outlaw gay conversion practices in the state, despite the premier, Dominic Perrottet, refusing to say whether he would support a ban.

As Sydney prepares to play host to the WorldPride festival beginning this week, the powerful crossbench MP Alex Greenwich has made a ban on the practice a condition of his support in the event of a hung parliament after the March state election.

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Dominic Perrottet’s brother sought $50,000 donation to unseat federal Liberal MP Alex Hawke, inquiry told

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Businessman tells NSW inquiry he was approached by Jean-Claude Perrottet because of his previous support for Malcolm Turnbull

A Sydney engineer with links to a former prime minister says the New South Wales premier’s brother approached him for a $50,000 donation in a bid to unseat a federal MP.

Businessman Frits Mare told a NSW parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday that Jean-Claude Perrottet, along with the Hills shire councillor Christian Ellis, asked for a $50,000 contribution from him in 2019 to unseat Alex Hawke.

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Perth festival 2023 opens to the world – with Aboriginal techno, the promise of Björk and uncomfortable truths

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Buoyed by a welcome return of international acts, the 70th Perth festival soars as artists dream of new worlds

The thrum of bare feet pounding the earth erupts across the darkened theatre. Four women charge over the stage, eyes bright and defiant, whirling their limbs and hips as if made of liquid adrenaline. With each exultant gesture, each primal pulse, the women suspend a dream of freedom in the air – a vision of Africa without colonisation.

Bikutsi 3000, which had its Australian premiere at Perth festival, is an afro-futuristic performance by Cameroon artist Blick Bassy that packs a bold political punch: centring women as the agents of emancipation from Africa’s treacherous history of imperialism, with dance as their only weapon. Among the ensemble of African women are two local Aboriginal dancers, Liani Dalgetty and Kristyn Lane, who join in the celebratory march towards freedom.

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Two people injured and one charged after alleged shooting in Toowoomba

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Queensland police charge 18-year-old woman with multiple firearm-related offences ahead of community safety forum

A woman and a teenage girl have been injured and an 18-year-old charged with a string of offences after an alleged shooting in Toowoomba, ahead of a community forum at which tensions over a perceived youth crime crisis are expected to come to a head.

The Queensland police minister, Mark Ryan, the youth justice minister, Leanne Linard, and the police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, are expected to attend a community safety forum at Toowoomba’s Empire theatre on Wednesday night.

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Police seek men rescued clinging to esky off WA coast after over 300kg of cocaine found ashore

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Authorities are requesting public assistance to locate the three men who told authorities their boat capsized while fishing

Three men are being sought after police found about 365kg of cocaine off Western Australia’s south coast.

The men were found clinging to an esky in the ocean off Albany on 1 February, telling authorities their boat had capsized while they were fishing.

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Kathleen Folbigg hoped for ‘genetic miracle’ after murder convictions, prison letters show

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In letters tendered at inquiry, Folbigg also wrote she got a ‘raw deal’ after being convicted of murdering three children

Kathleen Folbigg complained of getting a “raw deal” in letters from prison, which have been tendered at an inquiry into her convictions.

The 55-year-old was convicted in 2003 of murdering three of her children and the manslaughter of a fourth.

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Government receives strategic defence review – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. Follow our next Australia news live blog here when it launches

NZ government: worst of Cyclone Gabrielle is over but more rain still to be expected

Back to New Zealand for a moment:

Well … he could be but you know, look, during the republican referendum, he accused all sorts of people who oppose the republican movement of being on the wrong side of history … they seem to be able to survive that experience [of] being on the wrong side of history and go on to be prime minister and all sorts of things.

… You know, when Julia Gillard was prime minister, she was very publicly opposed to legalising same-sex marriage. And I used to say she and Tony Abbott [were] both wrong on this issue, but at least [Abbott] was sincerely wrong, because I never believed Julia believed what she was saying. But she did say it.

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‘Rorting’ claims over bushfire grants rejected by NSW premier

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Federal emergency management minister Murray Watt criticises state cabinet over relief program

Dominic Perrottet has defended his role in the New South Wales government’s allocation of Black Summer recovery grants after the federal emergency management minister, Murray Watt, accused him of being part of a “rorting” process that saw money funnelled away from Labor electorates.

The allegations were made after a national emergency management agency official told Senate estimates this week that they understood the grants went to the NSW cabinet’s expenditure review committee (ECR) before being finalised.

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NSW parliamentary inquiry to use firm to track down key witnesses, including two of Dominic Perrottet’s brothers

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Committee examining allegations of ‘impropriety’ against a Sydney council and developers will take the unusual step of using a private contractor to serve summons

A New South Wales parliamentary inquiry examining allegations of “impropriety” against a suburban Sydney council and property developers says it will hire private contractors to track down key witnesses who are “failing to cooperate” with the inquiry, including two of Dominic Perrottet’s brothers, in an extraordinary bid to force them to answer questions at a public hearing.

On Tuesday an upper house committee examining the “role and influence of developers and their interactions with councillors and members of parliament” at the Hills Shire council took the unusual step of saying it would contract a private firm to issue Charles and Jean-Claude Perrottet with formal summons to appear.

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PM reaffirms commitment to allow religious schools to hire staff based on faith

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Albanese says Labor made its position ‘clear a long time ago’ after religious groups reject proposal as having ‘severe limits’

Anthony Albanese has reiterated that Labor will respect religious schools’ right to select staff based on faith, after widespread backlash from religious groups to a proposal to limit their hiring and firing powers.

On Monday an alliance of religious leaders rejected a proposal by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to allow religious preference only where “the teaching, observance or practice of religion is a genuine occupational requirement”.

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Australia foils Iran surveillance plot and vows to bring foreign interference ‘into the light’

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Home affairs minister reveals incident included monitoring an individual’s home and extensively researching their family

Australian security agencies have disrupted a foreign interference plot by Iran that was targeting an Iranian-Australian on Australian soil, the government has said.

The plot allegedly included individuals monitoring the home of a critic of the Iranian regime and extensively researching the person and their family.

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Food for thought: carbon footprint of salmon and chicken farming mostly stems from feed, study suggests

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Scientists hope emerging research into new types of animal feeds will make aquaculture more sustainable

Most of the environmental effects of farmed chicken and salmon arise from the food the animals are reared on, new research suggests.

Animal feed given to farmed chickens and salmon account respectively for at least 78% and 69% of the industries’ environmental pressures, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology.

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Australia would spot any spy balloon over country, thinktank says, suggesting best way to down one

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Jindalee radar system detects airborne objects from ‘very long range’, while missile from F-35 jet more effective than laser for striking one

Australia’s radar network would be able to spot any spy balloon in its airspace, and a missile fired from a stealth fighter jet would be the most effective way to bring it down, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) says.

The United States has downed four flying objects since 4 February, including a Chinese spy balloon with a payload the size of three buses.

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Four questions the RBA and Philip Lowe may face during grilling from MPs

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Further rate rises, Reserve Bank strategy, transparency and whether to extend Lowe’s term are likely to come under scrutiny

When Philip Lowe fronts Senate estimates on Wednesday and the House of Representatives’ economics committee on Friday, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia will be peppered with questions about the central bank’s performance and thinking.

Here are four key issues he and his RBA colleagues will likely be asked about during the review of the central bank.

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