Category Archives: Australia news

Flood warnings issued for Murray River in South Australia – as it happened

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The SA SES has told residents in low-lying areas along the river to prepare to evacuate. This blog is now closed

Woolworths salads recalled in NSW, ACT, Queensland and Victoria

A food recall notice has been issued for two salads sold at Woolworth stores across New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland and Victoria.

Food products containing unsafe plant material may cause illness if consumed. ​

Consumers should not eat this product and should return the products to the place of purchase for a full refund. Any consumers concerned about their health should seek medical advice.​

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Police foil alleged plot to import 30kg of methamphetamine into WA inside 3D printers

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Two men, alleged to be senior members of an international crime syndicate, face charges in Taiwan

Two men alleged to be senior members of an international crime syndicate have been charged in Taiwan over an alleged plot to import 30kg of methamphetamine into Western Australia hidden inside 3D printers.

It was revealed on Saturday that a 33-year-old man and a 36-year-old man were arrested in July and October this year after they were noticed by the Australian federal police as part of Operation Ironside.

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Eight batteries to be built around Australia to increase renewable energy storage capacity

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Energy minister Chris Bowen says the batteries – shared between four states – will increase capacity tenfold to help stabilise the grid

Eight large batteries to store renewable energy will be built around Australia to support the grid and help keep energy prices down, the federal government has said.

The government-owned Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) would provide $176m to the projects, the energy minister, Chris Bowen, announced on Saturday.

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Australian denied gold at world short course swimming after bizarre re-run of final following technical error

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  • Isaac Cooper swam initial 50m backstroke in junior world record
  • US’s Ryan Murphy took gold in re-run in slower time

A shattered Isaac Cooper fought back tears after he was cruelly denied a backstroke world short course swimming gold medal in bizarre circumstances after the final had to be re-run.

Cooper was first home in the 50m final in Melbourne on Friday night but less than half the field completed the race after an alarm sounded due to a “technical error”.

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US asks Australia for extradition of former Marines pilot Daniel Duggan

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Lawyer says Duggan maintains his innocence after US accused him of training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers

The US government has sent an extradition request to Australia for former US Marines pilot Daniel Duggan, who is accused of breaking US arms control laws by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers.

“The US has made a formal request for extradition for Mr Duggan,” Trent Glover, a lawyer for the US government, told a Sydney local court on Friday.

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Coles recalls more spinach products as fears over potential contamination widen

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Supermarket warns over 11 own-brand products, following earlier recalls by Woolworths and Costco

Coles has recalled 11 own-brand spinach products as the scare over contamination of fresh produce in Australia widens.

On Saturday the supermarket announced it was recalling the products as a precaution because health authorities had advised that some spinach “may potentially be contaminated with unsafe plant material”.

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Bogong’s back: La Niña rains help moth numbers recover from near extinction

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Decimated by relentless drought, the population of the common Australian insect is recovering but remains fragile

The bogong moth population has started to bounce back after nearing extinction but the insect’s future remains fragile, a new report has found.

The Australian Conservation Foundation interviewed a number of scientists who collect data on bogong moth populations, finding that experts agree the numbers have increased this season, likely thanks to the deluge brought on by three consecutive La Niña years.

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Australia urged to offer asylum to Afghan women in ‘grave danger’ from Taliban

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Women facing deportation as Pakistan moves to expel refugees will be targeted by Taliban, crossbencher Rebekha Sharkie says

The Australian government is being urged to offer asylum to Afghan women targeted by the Taliban, as Pakistan moves to expel refugees by the end of the month.

Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie, working with crossbench support from across the parliament, has written to immigration minister Andrew Giles and home affairs minister Clare O’Neil, urging the government to act and bring the women to safety.

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NSW moves to raise taxes on casino poker machines amid push for gambling reform

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Government proposal comes after clubs lobby criticised the lower rate imposed on casino operators

Poker machine earnings at New South Wales casinos will be taxed at the same rate as those in clubs and pubs under proposed changes by the state government, amid growing a push for broader gambling reforms.

If in place by next July, the proposed tax-rate changes could inject an extra $364m into the state’s coffers over three years, according to government modelling.

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NSW Liberals expel senior members, refer themselves to election watchdog after branch-stacking inquiry

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‘Elaborate and complex’ operation allegedly included more than 100 members and involved people being signed up and given fake email addresses

The New South Wales branch of the Liberal party has referred itself to the state’s election watchdog and is expelling about a half a dozen senior party members following an internal investigation into an allegedly “elaborate and complex” branch-stacking system.

The alleged branch-stacking operation is understood to have included more than 100 members, and involved people being signed up to the party and given fake email addresses in a process that may have been used to influence key votes on policy and preselections.

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Three camels cause traffic chaos in Brisbane after escaping nativity scene

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Animals returned unharmed after apparently walking out of a display at Bridgeman Downs church in the early morning

Three camels have outsmarted the wise men after escaping a nativity scene and causing minor traffic chaos in Brisbane on Friday.

The camels are believed to have escaped from a display at Bridgeman Baptist Community Church in the early hours of Friday morning and were seen leisurely walking down one side of Albany Creek Road in Aspley at about 9am, the Courier-Mail reported.

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US religious conspiracist linked to Queensland police killers Gareth and Stacey Train

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Australian couple behind Wieambilla attack were in regular contact with man with a similar fundamentalist theology

In the hours after Gareth Train and his wife, Stacey, murdered two police officers and wounded a third during a chilling, premeditated attack on their remote Queensland property this week, they posted a haunting video to YouTube.

“They came to kill us, and we killed them,” Gareth says, his face partly obscured in darkness.

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Electricity generated by burning native Australian timber no longer classified as renewable energy

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Labor revokes Abbott government move which allowed energy from burning wood waste to be counted with solar and wind

Electricity generated by burning native forest wood waste will no longer be allowed to be classified as renewable energy under a regulatory change adopted by the Albanese government.

The decision, which Labor had promised to consider after it was recommended by a Senate committee in September, reverses a 2015 Abbott government move which allowed burning native forest timber to be counted alongside solar and wind energy towards the national renewable energy target.

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Wieambilla shooting: Stacey Train had limited contact with family after entering ‘controlling’ relationship with brother-in-law

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Family member remembers quiet girl whose life went ‘downhill’ after marrying

Every year, Stacey Train’s mother would call the mobile of her estranged daughter and leave a message on her birthday.

But, according to another family member, if her son-in-law, Gareth, picked up she would quickly hang up.

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Feral deer will become Australia’s ‘next rabbit plague’ without a containment zone, experts say

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Populations have increased tenfold in the past two decades, leading to a new national strategy to halt the rapid spread

Populations of feral deer have increased tenfold in the past two decades with numbers now too high to be managed by recreational hunting or other recent control measures.

Numbers of the invasive species are now so large in some parts of the east coast that a new national strategy by federal and state governments proposes establishing a “containment zone” to stop the spread of the animals westward across the country.

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‘Foreign actors’ may have fanned rightwing extremism during Covid to sway election, Liberal MP says

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Exclusive: Andrew Wallace urges colleagues to be ‘mindful’ of possibility but says he has no hard evidence

The deputy chair of parliament’s intelligence committee has suggested “foreign state actors” may have stoked anti-vaxxer and rightwing extremism sentiment in Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic in a bid to influence the outcome of the May federal election.

“I’m very mindful of the increase in the fanning of rightwing extremism in the lead-up to the last federal election,” the Coalition MP Andrew Wallace told Guardian Australia.

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‘Great migrant nation’: bid to protect Australian prosecco and feta from EU bans

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Trade minister Don Farrell says many producers took their food and culture to Australia from Europe and have the right to use traditional terms

The trade minister, Don Farrell, has asked his European counterparts to recognise Australia as a “great migrant nation” and not force its producers to stop using terms like prosecco and feta.

In an interview from Berlin, Farrell said he was hopeful of clinching a free trade agreement with the European Union early in the new year because he had received an “extremely positive response in all of the countries we visited”.

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Frank Houston continued to lead sermons after being stripped of credentials for child sexual abuse, court hears

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Maitland church pastor Robert Cotton said he would never have allowed Frank Houston to preach again if he knew he was a paedophile

Paedophile pastor Frank Houston continued leading church sermons until weeks before his death, despite being stripped of his credentials to minister after his son learned that he sexually abused children, a New South Wales court has heard.

Hillsong founder Brian Houston took away his father’s credentials in late 1999 after Frank Houston admitted he had abused children, the court has heard.

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Australia politics live: PM offers ‘humble thanks of a grateful nation’ as parliament pays tribute to Queensland shooting victims

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MPs and senators are back in Canberra to pass the government’s energy price cap legislation. Follow updates live

Meanwhile, Chris Bowen has been absolutely everywhere this morning, bouncing from interview to interview and Jim Chalmers has been filling in where Bowen hasn’t been.

We’ll bring you some of what they have been saying very soon.

Overwhelmingly this year, we’ve had unprecedented high prices and that’s what you and I were just talking about. Mostly that’s been driven by supply conditions. So you’ve had lots of discussion about the perfect storm, but we had lots of coal plant outages very high coal and gas prices, restrictions on the amount of water that Snowy Hydro is able to release and very high demand with an early winter but on top of all that, we don’t think all of those things explained the level of price increases we saw in the whole stock market this year. We have got some evidence that suggests maybe generators have been withholding some of their capacity to drive up prices a bit but it is early analysis and we do want to do some further work to test the outcome of that and how strong it is.

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Australia’s unemployment rate remains at 3.4% in November as 64,000 new jobs added

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The national jobless rate remains at a near 50-year-low as rebounding economy faces labor shortages from lack of migration

Australia’s jobless rate remained steady in November even as the economy added about 2,000 jobs a day, underscoring the tight conditions in the labour market.

The unemployment rate last month was 3.4% with employers taking on 64,000 extra positions, more than half of them full time, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Economists from the ANZ and CBA forecast the rate would remain at October’s 3.4% rate with a net increase of about 15-20,000 jobs.

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