Category Archives: Australia news

‘We need him here’: Djokovic comeback melts Melbourne hearts … almost

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  • Serb roundly cheered despite fears of abuse from crowd
  • Detractors remain as some fans question his character

In the moments before Novak Djokovic returned to Rod Laver Arena, many fans were unsure whether he would be welcomed back as the nine-time Australian Open champion or rebuked as an unvaccinated Covid-era villain.

Even his vocal supporters, like Peta Kovitch, draped in a Serbian flag and a string of lights that lit up the name Novak around her neck, expected some abuse from the Melbourne crowd. “If they want to boo, well they can go to the football. I’m sorry, that’s where it belongs,” she said before the match.

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‘Extinction crisis’ of sharks and rays to have devastating effect on other species, study finds

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Almost two-thirds of sharks and rays living on world’s coral reefs at risk, with 14 of 134 species reviewed critically endangered

Almost two-thirds of sharks and rays that live around the world’s coral reefs are threatened with extinction with potentially dire knock-on effects for ecosystems and coastal communities, according to new research.

Overfishing was the main cause of the declines over the past half a century, with larger sharks and rays being particularly hard hit.

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Sydney forecast to welcome its first day over 30 degrees in almost a year

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The city is just eight days off its longest streak of days below 30, the last being in February 2022

After 330 days, months of downpours and unusually cool weather, Sydney is finally staring down the barrel of a 30C day.

Wednesday is forecast to be the first day in nearly a year where temperatures are expected to top 30C at Observatory Hill, in the heart of the city, ending Sydney’s longest cool streak in over three decades.

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Philip Ruddock’s Sydney council challenges legality of GST levies on local government

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Exclusive: Hornsby mayor was a cabinet minister in Howard government when it introduced the tax in 2000

A Sydney council led by the former Howard government minister Philip Ruddock is spearheading a high court case arguing that GST levied on local councils is unconstitutional.

The challenge by Hornsby shire council questions the legality of the goods and services tax it has paid since it was first introduced by the Howard government in 2000.

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NSW treasurer refuses to say if $1,000 a day pokies spending cap is too high as he ridicules Labor policy

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Key independent MP calls for a $100 daily limit as Coalition comes under pressure to release details of its cashless gaming card

The New South Wales treasurer, Matt Kean, has refused to say whether he believes a $1,000 a day spending limit on poker machines is too high, as the Coalition government faces increasing pressure to release details of its highly anticipated cashless gaming card.

The powerful crossbench MP Alex Greenwich has urged the Coalition to follow its colleagues in Tasmania by setting a $100 daily limit on pokies, saying a cap was “crucial” for cashless gaming to work at reducing gambling addiction in the state.

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Activists call for immediate halt to duck and kangaroo hunting after Murray Darling floods

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Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia have increased kangaroo harvest quotas for 2023 but impact from floods yet to be assessed

Animal welfare advocates are calling for a moratorium on commercial and recreational shooting of wildlife affected by the devastating Murray-Darling floods.

Wildlife Victoria has called for the “immediate cessation” of the Victorian government’s kangaroo harvesting program and a moratorium on the annual duck hunting season, which usually begins in March.

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Australian justice appointed to Hong Kong court argues foreign judges shouldn’t ‘vacate the field’

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Exclusive: Some legal figures have raised concerns about message his appointment sends in light of Beijing’s crackdown on freedom in Hong Kong

The former Australian high court judge Patrick Keane has dismissed criticism of his appointment to a top Hong Kong court, saying he weighed up the role carefully but believed foreign judges should not “vacate the field”.

Legal figures have noted Keane’s eminent record, but some raised concerns about the message his appointment sends in light of Beijing’s increasing crackdown on rights and freedoms in Hong Kong.

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Australia news live updates: Queensland flood waters rising; tributes roll after death of Jim Molan

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Rising flood waters have cut north Queensland’s main transport corridor, the Bruce Highway, with more rain on the way. Follow the day’s news live

Dreyfus opens discussion about judicial watchdog

Today the attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus, will open consultation for the creation of a federal judicial commission, to police what he described as the “relatively rare” instances of “problematic conduct by judges”.

The three diseases that we’re focusing on on this trip – malaria, HIV and tuberculosis – three diseases that Australia has a good control over or good management over.

HIV cases are on the rise for a range of different reasons. Tuberculosis is just devastating and any young child with tuberculosis is an extremely confronting and devastating thing to see it’s a horrible disease. And malaria is an ongoing killer.

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Victoria rejects police calls for offence to replace public drunkenness

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Indigenous representatives celebrate decision not to replace law with police move-on powers

The daughter of Tanya Day, who died in custody after being arrested for being drunk on a train, has welcomed a decision by the Victorian government not to replace the state’s public intoxication laws with new move-on powers, despite opposition from the police union.

The government on Tuesday confirmed it would not give police any new powers to arrest people for being drunk in public once the existing offence is decriminalised in November 2023.

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Liberal senator Jim Molan dies aged 72 after ‘sudden’ decline in health

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The NSW senator had a long military career, including serving as major general in the Australian army, before turning to politics

Liberal senator Jim Molan’s former colleagues have mourned the loss of “a true patriot” after he died aged 72.

Molan, one of the architects of operation sovereign borders and a prominent China hawk in Australian politics, suffered a “sudden and rapid” decline in health after Christmas. He died peacefully on Monday in the arms of his family.

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Australian energy users call gas industry ‘a bunch of bullies’ amid claims of supply shortages

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Producers argue Albanese government’s price cap intervention has ‘paralysed the market’

Strains in the gas market have not been eased by the Albanese government’s price caps imposed late last year, with an industry group claiming supply shortages remain while the peak gas lobby is warning the sector has become “virtually paralysed”.

One month on from the government’s rare intervention to limit domestic gas prices to $12 a gigajoule and black coal to $125 a tonne, big commercial gas users are hoping new compliance guidelines to be released soon by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will force suppliers to provide an adequate supply.

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Nick Kyrgios’ withdrawal affects the Australian Open more than him | Emma Kemp

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Happy slam’s return to normality suffers another blow with late loss of its most sellable product

The time was 4pm, 27 hours before Nick Kyrgios was due to play his opening match and three minutes before he confirmed he would not. The announcement on the PA that “Nick Kyrgios is on his way to the main media conference room” was so unanticipated that journalists had to run to get there before he did.

You never know what you will get with Kyrgios, but 11th-hour withdrawals have become a theme of his non-existent 2023 season. It started with the United Cup, when his Australia teammates were informed 10 minutes before their joint press conference in Sydney that not only would he not be there but would not be playing any part in the competition.

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This Is Australia: First Nations dancers remake Childish Gambino’s This Is America

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Dance company Marrugeku has put together a blistering Australian take on the hit song and video, taking in our colonial past and our treatment of refugees

When Childish Gambino’s song This s America was first released in 2018, its elaborately choreographed and racially loaded film clip inspired a storm of speculation as people tried to decode what likely became the most talked-about music video of all time. Which of the dance moves were based on Jim Crow caricatures? Is the shooting of the gospel choir a rejection of spiritual upliftment? Is the last shot a reference to Get Out? And just what did the galloping horse mean?

Then remakes began to stream in from around the world. This Is Iraq, This Is Sierra Leone, This Is Nigeria, This Is Barbados, This Is Malaysia: all tackling racial injustice, human rights abuses, political hypocrisy and greed through dance and song.

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Police find elaborate underground bunker in Adelaide allegedly used to grow cannabis

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Two men charged with drug and money laundering offences, as well as theft of electricity, after officers raid Coromandel East property

Two men have been arrested after police uncovered an elaborate underground bunker allegedly used to grow cannabis in Adelaide’s south.

Officers attended a semi-rural property in the suburb of Coromandel East on Monday where they discovered the bunker’s entrance.

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Former Australian high court justice Patrick Keane set to serve on Hong Kong’s top court

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If recommendation is approved, he will be first foreign judge appointed since two British judges resigned citing concerns about freedom crackdowns

Former Australian high court justice Patrick Keane has been lined up to serve on Hong Kong’s top court after two British judges resigned citing concerns about freedom crackdowns.

Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, accepted the recommendation to appoint Keane to the court of final appeal bench on Friday.

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NSW Labor’s moves on poker machine reform renew pressure on Dominic Perrottet, experts say

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Call for detail on proposed cashless gaming scheme as questions raised about opposition’s pledge

Labor’s pledge to ban political donations from pubs and clubs in New South Wales while also introducing a 500-machine trial of cashless pokies has heaped pressure back on the Coalition government to announce details of its plan to overhaul gambling in the state.

Despite anti-gambling advocates and crossbench MPs arguing a new suite of policies announced by Labor on Monday does not go far enough, they have also called for the state’s premier, Dominic Perrottet, to follow suit.

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Russell Hill seen ‘grumpy’ at Victorian campsite days before he and Carol Clay allegedly murdered, court told

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Witness also tells committal hearing for Greg Lynn, the man charged with their murders, that he saw a drone flying over site

A “grumpy old bugger” believed to be Russell Hill was seen speeding into a campsite in remote bushland in Victoria’s high country hours before he was allegedly murdered, a court has heard.

Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, went missing in March 2020 while camping in the Wonnangatta Valley, east of Melbourne.

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Sydney man Myron Love named as one of 72 feared dead in Yeti Airlines plane crash in Nepal

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Friends have begun mourning the passionate cyclist and surfer as ‘a truly kind, fun, energetic man’

Sydney man Myron Love has been named by Nepali authorities as one of those feared dead in the nation’s worst aviation disaster in three decades.

Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority on Monday released the names, passport numbers and nationalities of the 72 passengers and crew onboard the plane that crashed west of Kathmandu, shortly before it was due to land. So far, at least 68 people have been confirmed dead.

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NSW MP to contest election despite husband’s death – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Australian Open CEO reflects on ‘very difficult journey’

Australian Open 2023 kicks off at Melbourne Park this morning.

A Balmain pub crawl

Craft breweries around Marrickville

The Corinthian restaurant for Greek food in Marrickville

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Not cool: push for insulation in all Australian rental homes as study shows dangerous heat levels

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People in social housing often face hottest conditions and struggle to pay for air conditioning, advocates say

Advocates are calling for insulation to be regulated in all Australian rental properties as research shows some people swelter through temperatures above 30C in their homes for extended periods in summer.

Many of the hottest homes are those of people living in social housing, with some residents forced to go into debt to buy air conditioners, or hose down their houses to stay cool.

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