Category Archives: Australia news

Walk for truth: hundreds of people join 486km trek from Portland to Melbourne for reconciliation

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Yoorrook Justice commissioner walked from the site of first settlement in Victoria to state parliament to promote truth-telling about Australian history

Travis Lovett began his 486km journey with a single step and a long-held hope to bring the people of Victoria with him on a journey through the state’s colonial past.

It’s a traumatic past that Lovett has been peering into for the past three years through his work as a commissioner and co-chair on the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the county’s first formal, Indigenous-led truth-telling process.

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Australia mushroom trial live: defence outlines two issues jury must consider to determine Erin Patterson’s fate

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Victorian woman, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder following a fatal beef wellington lunch in Leongatha in 2023. Follow live

Rogers says what Patterson “outwardly” portrayed did not always align with her “true feelings”.

She says Simon gave evidence that when he told her his parents were in hospital the day after the lunch Patterson never asked about them.

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ABC investigates defence correspondent for allegedly not disclosing trip paid for by German shipbuilder

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Andrew Greene, who has worked for the public broadcaster for more than 10 years, filed a story from Germany about business booming at naval shipyards

The ABC is investigating “serious allegations” that its defence correspondent Andrew Greene filed a story about a German shipbuilder without disclosing that he had traveled to Germany courtesy of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, which is hoping to win Australian navy contracts.

Media Watch revealed that Greene filed a story last week for ABC radio’s The World Today about how business is booming at German shipyards. The report, which has since been taken down, allegedly failed to disclose that the journalist had been a guest of the defence company.

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Pheobe Bishop: human remains found near Bundaberg confirmed as those of missing Queensland teenager

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Police, who have charged the 17-year-old’s housemates with her murder, confirmed identification of remains discovered close to Gin Gin in early June

Police say they have identified human remains found in scrub near Bundaberg as missing teenager Pheobe Bishop.

Bishop’s housemates – James Wood, 34, and Tanika Bromley, 33 – were arrested on 5 June and charged with her murder. They have not entered pleas and are on remand awaiting trial.

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Police hunt masked gunmen who shot three people at Sydney kebab shop in ‘brazen’ daylight attack

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One of three victims of ‘horrifying’ shooting in Auburn has had two previous attempts made on his life, NSW police say

A man shot in a “shockingly brazen” daylight attack in south-west Sydney, which wounded two other people, has had two previous attempts made on his life.

The acting New South Wales police commissioner, Peter Thurtell, said it was “beyond comprehension” three people could be gunned down in Sydney in daylight.

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Erin Patterson trial hears of ‘four calculated deceptions’ at heart of mushroom lunch case as closing address begins

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Prosecutor also tells court Patterson lied about cancer to lunch guests because she thought ‘her lie would die with them’

Four calculated deceptions are at the heart of Erin Patterson’s triple-murder case, the prosecution has claimed in its closing address to the jury, including a lie about cancer the accused hoped would “die with” her lunch guests.

On Monday, Nanette Rogers SC spent day 32 of the trial closing the prosecution case, outlining these four deceptions: Patterson’s fabricated cancer claim; the “lethal doses” of death cap mushrooms “secreted” in home-cooked beef wellingtons; Patterson’s attempts to make it seem she also suffered death cap mushroom poisoning; and the “sustained cover-up she embarked upon to conceal the truth”.

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Tasmanian police officer shot dead at rural property during court-issued attempt to repossess house

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Officer was attending the property to execute a warrant and was shot as he approached the house, police allege

A “devastated” family is in mourning and an alleged offender is in custody after a senior Tasmanian police officer died in a shooting in the state’s north-west.

The police commissioner, Donna Adams, said officers attended a residential property on Allison Road in North Motton at about 11am on Monday to execute a court-issued warrant to repossess the residence. They alleged the occupant of the home fatally shot a 57-year-old male officer as they approached the front of the house.

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Toll of Trump’s USAID cuts on Australian aid revealed, with projects to help children among hardest hit

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International development council describes consequences as ‘dire’ as 120 Australian projects affected by loss of more than $400m

The Trump administration’s gutting of foreign aid has seen a $400m hit to Australian projects, with 120 projects affected, at least 20 offices closed and people left without crucial support for health, education, humanitarian and climate change issues, the Australian Council for International Development (Acfid) has found.

Acfid has surveyed its members and their partners, who deliver projects on the ground, on the impact of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) cuts, which took effect when the president, Donald Trump, froze funding for 90 days from 20 January.

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Majority of Australians think China will be world’s most powerful country by 2035, poll finds

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Lowy Institute report shows trust in the US has tumbled to lowest level since thinktank began polling

A majority of Australians expect China will be the most powerful country in the world by 2035 as trust in the US tumbles, new research has found.

Just over one in three Australians (36%) trusted the US to act responsibly on the world stage, representing a 20-point fall from 2024 and the smallest proportion since the Lowy Institute began polling in 2005.

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One million Australians missing specialist doctor appointments due to cost, report finds

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Grattan Institute finds one in 10 Australians now paying $600 a year for specialist appointments

One in 10 Australians pay almost $600 each year to see specialist doctors, with 1 million delaying or skipping appointments due to the cost, according to new analysis.

A report by the Grattan Institute, released on Monday, revealed outpatient fees have soared over the past 15 years. The average initial out-of-pocket psychiatrist fee was $671 in 2023, with some “extreme fee” specialists charging more than triple the scheduled Medicare fee. It found almost 2 million Australians are delaying or skipping specialist appointments each year – about half due to cost – adding pressure to the country’s hospital systems.

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Australian deported from US says he was ‘targeted’ due to writing on pro-Palestine student protests

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Alistair Kitchen says he was detained and questioned about views on Israel and Palestine before being deported from LA to Melbourne

An Australian man who was detained upon arrival at Los Angeles airport and deported back to Melbourne says United States border officials told him it was due to his writing on pro-Palestine protests by university students.

Alistair Kitchen said he left Melbourne on Thursday bound for New York and was detained for 12 hours and interrogated by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials during the stopover in Los Angeles.

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News live: PM secures meeting with Trump; Australian man killed in Bali

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Albanese says he will meet with US president Donald Trump to discuss tariffs. Follow today’s news live

Good morning, and welcome to today’s blog. And if you were hoping to ease into it, apologies – there’s quite a bit going on.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese has managed to shore up a meeting with US president Donald Trump. They’ll catch up on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada on Tuesday. Tariffs are top of the agenda, but the Aukus deal is now looking shaky so that will likely feature as well. Albanese said:

Obviously, there are issues that the US president is dealing with at the moment, but I expect that we will be able to have a constructive engagement.

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Deadly algal bloom in South Australia’s Coorong an environmental ‘eye opener’, ecologist says

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Among the dead in the internationally significant wetland are estuarine snails, shore crabs, baby flounder and ‘a thick stew of polychaete worms’

When South Australia’s algal bloom arrived in the Coorong, it stained the water like strong tea before turning it into a slurry of dead worms.

Many had hoped the storm in late May would break up the bloom of Karenia mikimotoi algae, which has killed more than 200 different marine species. Instead, high tides swept the algae into the Coorong, an internationally significant Ramsar wetland at the mouth of the Murray River.

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Daylight saving shapes how we spend, socialise and travel, NSW data reveals

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Exclusive: As the shortest day of the year draws near, government study shows how earlier sunsets curb economic activity and public transport trips

Daylight saving and its delayed sunsets encourages people to stay out later and spend more money, New South Wales government data shows. The data also found more evening light attracts people to public transport and out of their cars.

Conversely, that uptick in mobility almost entirely vanishes in the days after clocks are wound back an hour, as earlier sunsets cut post-work social and economic activity, the data showed.

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Plastics campaigners warn Australia’s pledge at UN needs to be matched with ‘high ambition at home’

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Environment minister Murray Watt is returning from oceans conference where he pledged to curb the scourge of plastics and ratify a treaty to protect the high seas

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The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, is returning from a UN oceans conference where he pledged to curb the scourge of plastics and make good on Australia’s promise to ratify a treaty to protect the high seas.

The five-day meeting in Nice, France finished on Friday, and conservationists celebrated some key steps towards protecting wildlife in international waters.

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Minns government backs bill promoting hunting in NSW’s state forests and crown land

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Critics say history shows recreational shooting is not as effective as evidence-based baiting and aerial shooting programs

In a back-to-the-future move, the Minns Labor government has backed a Shooters and Fishers party bill that will promote hunting in state forests and crown lands in NSW and recognise “conservation hunting” as a legitimate tool to control feral animals.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has thrown his support behind a proposed Conservation Hunting Council, to the horror of environmental groups which warn of a repeat of the now-defunct Game Council.

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Explosion in Sydney apartment blows out brick wall and damages adjoining units

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Cause of blast in Lidcombe unit unknown, with one person taken to hospital

Officials are unsure of the cause of an explosion at an apartment block in western Sydney that saw one person taken to hospital, saying “there is no fire”.

Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) responded to reports just before 6.30am on Friday of an explosion at an apartment block in Lidcombe.

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Proposed Macquarie University restructure will ‘hollow out’ humanities, academics say

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Macquarie blames prospect of international student caps and ‘uncertainty’ about domestic student numbers for proposed academic job cuts, fewer arts courses

Academics have accused Macquarie University of “hollowing out” the humanities after the institution announced a restructure that would halve some arts faculties and drastically reduce course offerings for some degrees.

Under the proposed changes, seen by Guardian Australia, 42 full-time equivalent academic roles in the faculty of arts and 33 in the faculty of science and engineering would be cut, making about $15m in net savings. Curriculum changes would be made in 2026 and 2027, with mergers and reductions largely attributed to low enrolment figures.

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NSW government failing to measure or reduce gambling harm, damning audit finds

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Gambling losses and calls to helplines both up but Minns government has no benchmarks or measures to assess its harm minimisation strategy, report says

The New South Wales government has not set targets to reduce the harm caused by about 90,000 poker machines in the state and does not know if it is protecting people, according to a damning audit.

The state’s auditor general has also said the NSW government is doing “relatively little” to assess whether pubs and clubs are identifying and preventing gambling harm at their venues.

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Erin Patterson says she didn’t deliberately source death caps and serve to guests as murder trial evidence concludes

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Patterson tells court her children were mistaken when they said she served herself leftover beef wellington the night of the lunch

Erin Patterson has finished giving evidence in her triple murder trial, bringing an end to eight days of testimony in the Victorian supreme court.

Patterson answered “disagree” to three final questions from prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC on Thursday morning: that she deliberately sourced death caps in 2023, included them in beef wellingtons served to her lunch guests, and intended to kill them when she did so.

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