Australian census data shows 102,000 people left New South Wales and 10,000 abandoned Victoria
Far more people are moving to Queensland than any other state or territory, while New South Wales recorded the biggest net loss, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.
There was a net gain of more than 100,000 people to the Sunshine State in the five years to 2021, according to internal migration numbers from the census.
Continue reading...Exclusive: In newly released correspondence, arbitrarily detained engineer speaks of fear skin cancer will return
Australian Robert Pether, jailed in Baghdad last year over a business dispute, has penned an emotional letter warning his prognosis is “bleak”, his human rights are being violated, and he is facing a potential “death sentence”.
In the letter to his family, released to Guardian Australia, Pether also reveals his daily torment about how he should break it to his children that he might not be coming home.
Continue reading...Albanese government has agreed amendments to get business on board but independent senators won’t be bullied into passing omnibus legislation
The Albanese government is ratcheting up pressure on Senate crossbenchers to support its contentious industrial relations legislation after Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock signalled concessions to employers were not enough to expedite the bill’s passage.
Labor used the resumption of federal parliament on Monday to welcome last week’s 15% pay rise for aged care workers and declare that other workers battling escalating cost-of-living pressures needed industrial regulations that worked in their interests, given inflation was now forecast to peak at 8%.
Continue reading...Migration system review will focus on process
For those wondering, here is a little more detail on the migration review Clare O’Neil announced this morning.
Accessed the name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address for around 9.7 million current and former customers and some of their authorised representatives. This figure represents around 5.1 million Medibank customers, around 2.8 million ahm customers and around 1.8 million international customers.
Did not access primary identity documents, such as drivers’ licences, for Medibank and ahm resident customers.
Medibank does not collect primary identity documents for resident customers except in exceptional circumstances.
Accessed Medicare numbers (but not expiry dates) for ahm customers.
Accessed passport numbers (but not expiry dates) and visa details for international student customers.
Accessed health claims data for around 160,000 Medibank customers, around 300,000 ahm customers and around 20,000 international customers.
This includes service provider name and location, where customers received certain medical services, and codes associated with diagnosis and procedures administered.
Additionally, around 5,200 My Home Hospital (MHH) patients have had some personal and health claims data accessed and around 2,900 next of kin of these patients have had some contact details accessed.
Accessed health provider details, including names, provider numbers and addresses.
Did not access health claims data for extras services (such as dental, physio, optical and psychology).
Did not access credit card and banking details.
Continue reading...‘Limited chance’ such a move would result in return of data or prevent it being published, health insurer chief says
Medibank is refusing to pay a ransom to the alleged hacker who stole data relating to 9.7 million customers because there is no way the organisation can “trust criminals” not to further exploit people, the health insurer’s CEO, David Koczkar, says.
Last month Medibank revealed a hacker using compromised high-level credentials had been able to access the personal information of up to four million customers, including ahm and international student customers.
Continue reading...Proposed laws may allow access to sensitive and confidential information and could undermine public confidence, commissioner says
Queensland’s election watchdog has warned proposed law changes will have a “chilling effect” on its perceived ability to oversee free and fair elections.
A bill before the state’s parliament would allow for reviews of public entities, including direct access to premises and documents. The Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) wants to be excluded from such reviews, which other statutory bodies, including the Crime and Corruption Commission and the Queensland Audit Office, are already not subject to.
Continue reading...Earlier document warned proposed debt recovery measures would have ‘fundamental impacts on social security policy and legislation’, royal commission told
Legal concerns over what became the robodebt scheme were “watered down” but still included in briefing documents prepared for Scott Morrison, a royal commission has heard.
The inquiry into the botched Centrelink debt recovery scheme has previously heard the Department of Social Services in late 2014 held damning internal legal advice warning the key method used to raise those debts may be unlawful.
Continue reading...NSW police want details of case suppressed while Gunathilaka’s lawyer has suggested T20 World Cup player could appeal bail decision
Sri Lankan international cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka has been refused bail by a Sydney magistrate after he was charged with raping a woman in the city.
Gunathilaka, who is in Australia for the T20 World Cup, was arrested at his central Sydney hotel in the early hours of Sunday and refused bail by a court later that day.
Continue reading...Australia’s rugby men have earned a remarkable triumph at the Hong Kong Sevens, winning the global circuit’s blue riband event for the first time in 34 years.
Coached by John Manenti, the side proved their world series triumph may be just the start of something big on Sunday as they began their 2022-23 campaign by beating Olympic and World Cup champions Fiji 20-17 in the final after a nail-biting finish.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Claim by academics, including former integrity chair of Australia’s carbon credit scheme, raises further doubts about system
Projects meant to regenerate Australia’s outback forests to store carbon dioxide have been awarded millions of carbon credits – worth hundreds of millions of dollars – despite total tree and shrub cover in those areas having declined, a new analysis has found.
It is the latest claim that raises doubts about the integrity of Australia’s carbon credit system, which the federal government and polluting businesses rely on to meet targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Continue reading...New advertising campaign encourages those at higher risk of infection ‘to look out for symptoms and get vaccinated if eligible’
The federal government has launched a new national advertising campaign to promote monkeypox vaccination to a “post-Covid and vaccine-fatigued audience”.
The health minister, Mark Butler, will also announce on Monday that a second shipment of almost 40,000 vials of the monkeypox vaccine Jynneos has arrived in Australia and will be made available through the states and territories.
Continue reading...Uniforms, lunches and excursions heap pressure on parents already dealing with rising cost of petrol, groceries and rent
The cost-of-living crisis is having dire effects on school-age children, as parents struggle to afford uniforms, lunches and excursions, a report by the Smith Family has found.
Two-thirds of the almost 2,000 parents and carers supported by the organisation who were surveyed for the report had found it harder to afford what their children needed for school this year. Half the parents surveyed said the main reason was the increasing cost of petrol, groceries and rent.
Continue reading...Premier says more to come on cost-of-living measures and asks ‘what is the point’ of News Corp story on his 2021 fall
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has pledged $37m to introduce a veterans card if re-elected later this month, while the opposition leader, Matthew Guy, offered stamp duty savings for first home buyers.
The Victorian veterans card, to be rolled out from mid-2023, would entitle the state’s 90,000 veterans to a $100 discount on the registration of one vehicle, as well as free trailer and caravan registration and free fishing and boating licences. Veterans would be entitled to free public transport on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
Chaney ‘not convinced’ IR changes will ‘drive an increase in wages’
On the proposed industrial relations changes, Chaney says she supports the proposal where it will lift wages in low-paid sectors of the economy but is wary of introducing “another layer of complexity” into workplaces and is not convinced multi-employer bargaining will actually lift wages.
I’m completely supportive of the fact that we need to increase wages and increase share of wages to GDP. I think the expansion – the multi-employer bargaining for the supported stream is a good thing, [in] those low-paid industries, and that may well get wages moving.
[It will benefit] childcare, aged care, largely feminised industries, and that seems to make a lot of sense. I’m concerned about the overreach and this extension of multi-employer bargaining to any group that are deemed to have a common interest, as determined by the Fair Work Commission. I think it’s great for IR specialists and lawyers.
I can understand the government’s desire to keep its promises, but when you look at where we are, really there is nothing to take the place of the revenue lost in those tax cuts, so it needs to be part of a broader review of how are we going to pay for the things we need.
I reckon they should be delayed, pending a broader review of the tax system and it may be that a result that have could be trimming them at the top, or it could be looking at different sources of revenue that mean we can rely less on personal income tax as we see our population age.
Continue reading...ACT police do not believe any other party involved after previously discovering bodies of mother and brother in Yerrabi Pond on Saturday
ACT police have recovered the body of an eight-year-old boy who was missing after his mother and brother were earlier found dead in a Canberra pond.
Officers had been searching since Saturday for Pranav Vivekanandan in the water of Yerrabi Pond and the surrounding bushland at Gungahlin in Canberra’s north.
Continue reading...Floods crisis continues across NSW and Victoria although waters are subsiding in parts of the country including Forbes and Wagga Wagga
The body of a second man who died when a ute was swept into New South Wales flood waters last week has been found in the southern tablelands, as towns throughout the state and in Victoria remain on high alert.
NSW police confirmed on Sunday that police divers had found the man’s body after the ute was swept off a flooded causeway in Bevendale, about 280km south-west of Sydney, on Monday.
Continue reading...Environment minister visited Tasmania for two days and insists she’s taking mine decision seriously but Brown wanted her to visit rainforest with him
Bob Brown has accused the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, of prioritising industry over the environment by not accepting his invitation to tour Tasmania’s takayna/Tarkine rainforest when she visited the site of a controversial mining proposal.
Plibersek visited Tasmania last week to meet with representatives and workers from the minerals company MMG about its proposal to build a tailings waste dam and pipeline infrastructure in rainforest near the town of Rosebery in the state’s north-west.
Continue reading...State opposition leader Chris Minns also pushes for tighter rules around evicting tenants without reasonable grounds
Almost a million renters in New South Wales would be able to transfer their bond from one property to the next and couldn’t be kicked out of their homes without reasonable grounds given, under a plan proposed by state Labor.
The pledge ahead of the 2023 election comes amid soaring rents in Sydney and rising accommodation costs in regional areas, with NSW’s median rent increasing from $386 to $420 a week between 2016 and 2021.
Continue reading...Victorian education department investigating after teacher accused of playing ‘explicit and blasphemous’ video to class
A Melbourne school has been accused of forcing a Muslim student to watch a cartoon depicting Muhammad in class, prompting an investigation by the state government.
A teacher at the college, in Melbourne’s north, allegedly played an “explicit and blasphemous” cartoon to the class that depicted the prophet Muhammad, according to the student’s father. The Victorian education department is investigating the incident.
Continue reading...Player donated to Great Ormond Street and apologised to Anna Palus for saying she was drunk during final
Nick Kyrgios has settled a legal case with a spectator he accused of having “about 700 drinks” during this year’s Wimbledon final.
Kyrgios had complained to the umpire about the behaviour of Anna Palus during his four-set defeat by Novak Djokovic on Centre Court.
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