Category Archives: Australia news

NSW Liberal council election debacle descends into accusations of factional warfare

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Broadcaster Ray Hadley challenges ‘cowardly’ conservatives to ‘have a bit of courage for the sake of NSW politics’

The New South Wales Liberals’ failure to nominate in some local council elections has spilled over into accusations of factional warfare, with moderates warning a review should not be used as a pretext to dump the president, Don Harwin, or usher in federal intervention.

Brian Loughnane, the former federal Liberal director and reviewer of the 2022 election defeat, has been called in to examine the nomination failure, for which state director Richard Shields was sacked.

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Australia politics live: Coalition to reveal cost of nuclear plan ‘in good time’, Angus Taylor says; misbehaving MPs face fines under new standards commission

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The government will introduce legislation today which includes penalties for MPs and parliament house staff who have been found to have committed wrong doing. Follow the day’s news live

Gambling ads ‘an issue of morality’: Sharkie

As Paul Karp reported yesterday, the independent MP Rebekha Sharkie is one of the MPs pushing for the major parties to be allowed a conscience vote on the forthcoming Labor gambling legislation.

The Murphy report called for a full ban. That’s the expectation of many members of parliament, both the opposition and government said and the crossbench, but many have said to me that they’re wrestling with their conscience on the idea that there would only be a partial ban and many people see this issue closely tied to their faith, an issue of morality.

So it would appear to me and also to Andrew Wilkie that, you know, a straightforward position would be to allow a conscience vote and in my time in the Parliament, we’ve had four conscience votes. I think it would naturally fit for the parameters an issue that sits within their soul.

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Man’s body found in creek after multiple shootings in western Sydney

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Police found the body of a man in a creek in Auburn early on Wednesday morning

A man’s body has been found by police investigating multiple shootings in western Sydney which police believe to be connected.

Emergency services were called to Antwerp Street, Auburn, shortly before 10pm on Tuesday, after reports shots had been fired into a home during a domestic incident, New South Wales police said in a statement.

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Australia could save thousands of bats a year with simple tweak to wind turbines, study says

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Raising the wind speed at which turbines start spinning could prevent tens of thousands of bat deaths each year, researchers find

Australian windfarm operators are being urged to embrace a simple measure used overseas that scientists say could dramatically reduce the number of bats killed by turbines.

Curtailment – lifting the wind speed at which turbines start spinning – is used in some European countries and parts of the US and Canada, but rarely in Australia. A global study published in the journal BioScience found it was an effective way to limit bat deaths.

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Aged care in the home improves lives and saves money. So why are Australians being made to wait?

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‘If you ignore people at a point where they really need some of that earlier intervention … then you’re up for a higher cost,’ says expert

Twenty years ago, Patrick Evans beat cancer. Now aged 76, the repercussions of the radiation treatment that helped him are setting in.

“He has very serious aspiration and that causes him pneumonia and that lands him in hospital on a regular basis,” his wife, Inda, said. “He had a very bad episode last year and was basically in a life or death situation.”

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‘Strong sentiment’ among construction union members to disaffiliate from Labor, CFMEU secretary says

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Zach Smith says federal government plan to appoint administrators has left members feeling their democratic rights have been stripped

Construction union members are “angry” and there is a “strong sentiment” among many to disaffiliate from the Labor party, the Construction Forestry Maritime and Employees Union’s national secretary has warned.

After the Coalition and Labor struck a deal to appoint administrators to address accusations of criminal misconduct and bikie links, Zach Smith said the union was “never given an opportunity” to address the issues itself.

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‘Enough is enough’: teal MPs call out ‘misogyny’ of Coalition MPs in question time

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After an often-heated parliamentary sitting, new figures show spike in ejections of opposition members as Kylea Tink labels behaviour ‘unacceptable’

Teal MPs have called time on poor question time behaviour, claiming performances by the opposition during recent sitting weeks have been “condescending”, “aggressive” and “often misogynistic”.

Fresh figures also reveal MPs have been booted out of the nationally broadcast event for “disorderly conduct” almost 200 times since May 2022, with more than six Coalition politicians entering double digits.

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Bridget Archer and Fatima Payman sign letter pushing for total ban on gambling ads as independent MPs urge free vote

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More than 20 parliamentarians – including Jacqui Lambie and Lidia Thorpe – sign letter calling for blanket ban

Some 21 parliamentarians including Liberal MP Bridget Archer and former Labor senator Fatima Payman have joined a push for the government to ban all gambling ads, as independent MPs push for a free vote on a total ban.

The first letter is signed by a group of Greens, the teal MPs and other lower house independents, senators Jacqui Lambie, David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe. It calls for a “blanket ban on advertisements for online gambling”.

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Zionist Federation leader says Australia-based NYT journalist should be sacked over doxed list

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It was an ‘egregious breach of trust’ that Natasha Frost shared logs of Jewish WhatsApp chat with 600 members, Jeremy Leibler says

The Zionist Federation of Australia president, Jeremy Leibler, says the New York Times should sack a Melbourne-based reporter who downloaded and shared from a private WhatsApp group of Jewish creatives.

The subsequent leaking of the WhatsApp group chat, including members’ contact details, photographs and social media accounts, led to death threats, forced one family into hiding and had a profound effect on the 600-odd members, the partner in law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler alleged.

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NSW police had emails that could have saved lives at Wieambilla, inquest hears

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Queensland police weren’t warned of threats to law enforcement made by Trains before shooting, hearing told

Queensland police weren’t warned of emails threatening law enforcement sent by the perpetrators of the Wieambilla shooting because the New South Wales officer who asked them to attend the remote rural property didn’t read the emails until it was too late, an inquest has heard.

Detective Senior Constable Tim Montgomery, who testified on day 14 of an inquest by the Queensland state coroner Terry Ryan into the Wieambilla shootings, was assigned with tracking down Nathaniel Train.

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NT government missed opportunities to prevent ‘horrific deaths’ of four Indigenous women, inquest hears

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Some 30 recommendations were put before the NT coroner including overhauling prison programs to ‘end the violence’ against women and children

A coroner investigating the shocking deaths of four Northern Territory women has been urged to back sweeping changes to curb the scourge of domestic violence.

On Tuesday, counsel-assisting Peggy Dwyer SC released 30 proposed recommendations for the coroner, Elisabeth Armitage, to consider ahead of her findings.

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Coalition senators split in voting on Ralph Babet motion on abortion – as it happened

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Murray Watt on visas: ‘We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition’

The opposition has continued its political attacks against visas being given to Palestinians from Gaza (before Israel seized and completely closed the Rafah border in May).

We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition when they were in power and when Peter Dutton was the minister. Mike Burgess, the director general of Asio, has confirmed that himself.

Peter Dutton was quite prepared to use certain processes when he was the minister. Now we’re in power, he wants to criticise that. He wants to find division, to find reasons for criticism and be negative of the government.

I think this is just a ridiculous example he’s [Adam Bandt] giving, to disguise the fact yesterday the Greens were the only party in the parliament who decided to side with John Setka … rather than taking the side of the Australian people.

We had a vote in the Parliament yesterday, in the Senate, that called on the Greens to say they wouldn’t take political donations from the CFMEU construction division, they refused to vote for that. So I think it’s pretty clear what the motivation here is in voting against this legislation.

We haven’t received a dollar from the CFMEU for a decade, the Coalition received $175,000 in the last two years, Labor has received millions of dollars and what we say is we have not received the money, it is not why we are engaged in the debate.

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Peter Dutton tells Coalition party room he only wants temporary pause on Gaza visas as part of ‘principled stance’

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Some Coalition MPs have indicated privately they would be concerned if opposition leader was advocating to permanently refuse visas to Palestinians

Peter Dutton has assured Coalition MPs he is only calling for a temporary pause in allowing people from Gaza to come to Australia, after some were concerned he wanted a permanent ban.

In his weekly address to the Coalition party room, Dutton insisted the Coalition had taken “a principled stance” in challenging the visa approval process for applicants from Gaza and demanding greater security checks.

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Australia and Indonesia to deepen military ties after striking ‘historic’ security pact

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Anthony Albanese and Prabowo Subianto announce conclusion of treaty negotiations but reporters weren’t able to ask questions about new deal

Australia and Indonesia have struck a new security pact that will lead to more joint military exercises and visits, prompting human rights advocates to call for safeguards.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told the Indonesian defence minister and president-elect, Prabowo Subianto, in Canberra on Tuesday that there was “no more important relationship than the one between our two great nations”.

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Housing construction and renovations to continue decline for ‘at least 12 months’, Australian building supplier says

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Reece forecasts further ‘softness’ in the building and renovation markets over the coming year

Australians’ love affair with their home has been unshakeable, with property owners usually willing to upgrade, detonate and renovate even during financial downturns.

But according to major plumbing and bathroom products supplier Reece, that is now being tested.

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Red centre heat could see temperature records tumble across Australia in coming days, meteorologists forecast

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Hot winds predicted to push temperatures four to seven degrees above average across the east of the country

Potentially record-breaking winter heat in Australia’s centre will carry unseasonably warm temperatures across the country this weekend and into the next week, meteorologists predict.

Temperatures across most of the country except the very far west, will sit four to seven degrees above average, including most urban centres in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania, said Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist at the bureau of meteorology.

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Australians in most common jobs can’t afford to save for deposit without housing stress, report finds

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Childcare workers, aged carers, teachers and retail assistants are among those priced out of the market, analysis suggests

Australians working in the country’s most common jobs cannot comfortably own their own home, new analysis shows, as the Greens double down on stalling the Albanese government’s housing bills.

Childcare workers, aged carers and teachers are among those priced out of the market, a parliamentary library analysis requested by the Greens shows.

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Former NSW Coalition government was warned recycled soil products posed ‘unacceptable risks’

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Exclusive: Environment watchdog advised in 2021 the material ‘should not be used broadly’, before backing away from proposals to tighten regulations

The New South Wales environment watchdog warned the former Coalition state government that a widely used recycled landscaping product posed “potential unacceptable risks to the environment and the community”.

Guardian Australia revealed in January that the Environment Protection Authority had known for more than a decade that producers of soil fill made from construction and demolition waste – known as recovered fines – were failing to comply with rules to limit the spread of contaminants.

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Brittany Higgins will no longer give evidence at Linda Reynolds’ defamation trial, lawyer tells court

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Rachael Young tells court Higgins’ ‘medical state’ forms part of the reasoning behind no longer calling her to give evidence

Brittany Higgins will not testify to defend herself at a defamation trial brought against her by former boss, the Liberal senator Linda Reynolds.

Reynolds is suing her former staffer over a series of social media posts Higgins made after she aired allegations she had been raped by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in the then defence minister’s office.

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Greens condemn ‘deeply flawed’ deal – as it happened

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Birmingham explains Dutton’s remarks

The Coalition’s Simon Birmingham is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast right now and he is asked about the prime minister’s comments about no one coming to Australia from Gaza at the moment.

Because he answered a question from a fellow journalist, so this wasn’t brought up by Peter Dutton, as is being put.

Yes, the borders in Gaza are closed at present.

Just while I’ve got you, Pete, before you go, and while it’s quiet, I do want to ask you about the security checks on Palestinians coming in from Gaza. Your thoughts on that this morning?

No one is coming out of Gaza, because in order to leave Gaza, of course, Israel, due to the nature of the situation there, was having to approve people going through the Rafah crossing in order to depart earlier on.

So they know that that’s the situation, and that’s the context of Peter Dutton then saying he wants just to pause for the moment. He wants to stop people coming in when he knows that no one is leaving Gaza, at the moment.

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