New York and Singapore top the list of world’s most expensive cities in 2022

Sydney sneaks into Top 10 as rising energy prices send inflation soaring globally, Economist Intelligence Unit survey finds

New York was the world’s most expensive metropolis in 2022, sharing the unwanted title with Singapore, as soaring energy prices doubled the inflation rate across the major global cities, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual survey.

Last year’s leader Tel Aviv dropped to third, while Sydney snuck into the Top 10 and Moscow and St Petersberg in Russia scaled the rankings by as much as 88 places as sanctions and buoyant oil prices propelled prices higher, the EIU’s Worldwide Cost of Living report found.

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Lower house to return on Friday – as it happened

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The government services minister Bill Shorten was on ABC radio RN Breakfast when he learned the Medibank hackers had released all the customer information on the dark web.

Josh Taylor has reported on that here.

Our democracy is precious, our federal government is crucial to the success of the nation, and I know, as you do, that trust in our parliament, in our commonwealth, in politicians, has been falling dramatically. That’s a real problem and I really hope this begins to restore the trust.

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Socceroos to face Argentina in World Cup knockouts after Australia’s famous win over Denmark – live reaction

Australia’s 1-0 win sends them through for first time since 2006, as Mat Leckie’s 60th-minute goal proves decisive in Qatar

Calls for public holiday

Admittedly these calls are coming from the football establishment, but still, surely something for Anthony Albanese to consider.

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Concussion and head trauma in contact sports to be examined by parliamentary inquiry, Greens say

Lidia Thorpe says Labor and Coalition back hearings while ‘sports organisations need to be transparent about evidence that informs concussion policies’

A federal parliamentary committee will examine concussion and repeated head trauma in contact sports, with the Greens saying they have the support of Labor and the Coalition to establish the inquiry.

The push follows growing concern about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated head trauma and concussion that has been increasingly linked to contact and collision sports.

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Medibank hackers announce ‘case closed’ and dump huge data file on dark web

The size of the data file suggests it may be the full trove of hundreds of thousands of customers’ private records that were stolen from the health insurer

The cybercriminals behind the Medibank cyber-attack have posted on the dark web what appears to be the remainder of what customer data they took from the health insurer, stating it is “case closed” for the hack.

On Thursday morning, the blog – which returned online after several days of being offline last week – posted “Happy Cyber Security Day!!! Added folder full. Case closed.” and included a file that has several compressed files amounting to over 5GB.

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‘A magnificent win’: Australia’s World Cup victory sparks wild celebrations back home

PM Anthony Albanese leads the applause for the Socceroos, who were also cheered on by huge crowds in Melbourne and Sydney

Australia’s historic World Cup win over Denmark sparked wild celebrations across the country in the early hours of the morning as the team progressed to the knockout stages of the finals for only the second time.

Thousands of fans had gathered in Melbourne’s Federation Square to watch the match in the middle of the night and erupted in ecstasy when Mathew Leckie scored to put them into the lead after an hour.

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NSW high school principal investigated for historical child sexual abuse after messages found on student’s Facebook account

Exclusive: Mother of former year 12 student discovered messages between teacher and her son after he died last year

A New South Wales high school principal has been banned from interacting with students while police investigate a claim of alleged historical child sexual abuse of a student when he was 17 and she was in her late 40s.

Concern was raised when the student’s mother discovered hundreds of messages between the pair dating back about a decade, when he was in year 12 and she was a deputy principal.

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Albanese confident Queensland and NSW premiers will back plan to cut power prices

PM tells business leaders his government is ‘working around the clock to deliver a solution’ and flags collaboration with states

Anthony Albanese has told business leaders he is “confident” the Queensland and New South Wales premiers will assist his government with a plan to reduce power prices for households and businesses.

The prime minister used a speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to provide an assurance that the government was “working around the clock to deliver a solution” and to flag collaboration with the states.

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Australia’s banks likely to reduce lending to regions and sectors at risk of climate change impacts, regulator says

Apra finds country’s banks may be more vulnerable to economic downturns as they face threefold increase in lending losses

Banks expect to reduce lending to households and businesses in northern Australia and to fossil fuel industries across the country as the risk of losses due to the climate crisis escalates, the industry regulator says.

A new report by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) found climate change could make banks more vulnerable to economic downturns as they face up to a threefold increase in lending losses by 2050, but that the system should be able to absorb the impact.

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ABC article defamed commando by naming him and running ‘huge colour photo’, court told

Heston Russell’s lawyer tells federal court readers were given ‘impression’ he was responsible for shooting an unarmed prisoner in Afghanistan

Lawyers for a former special forces officer have argued an ABC article portrayed him as a war criminal, despite not directly alleging he had committed crimes.

Heston Russell is suing the ABC and two of its investigative journalists over stories published in 2020 and 2021 which he argues gave readers the “impression” he was responsible for shooting an unarmed prisoner and was being investigated.

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Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright appears in Darwin court on multiple charges related to fatal helicopter crash

Judge extends bail to 25 January for Netflix star who denies the charges which include perverting the course of justice and destroying evidence

Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright has appeared in a Darwin court on multiple charges related to a helicopter crash that killed a cast member.

The crocodile trapper and media personality says he is disappointed police charged him in connection with the “tragic accident” and he would fight the allegations.

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Voters will reject Liberals if they don’t have enough female candidates, Matt Kean says

NSW treasurer savaged his party’s preselection processes and warned that the community expects more diversity in its parliaments

The New South Wales treasurer, Matt Kean, has savaged his own party’s preselection processes and membership, warning the Liberals risk losing voters at the March election if they fail to put up enough female candidates.

Kean, the party’s deputy leader, said he had been “devastated” that the state’s most senior Liberal woman, Natalie Ward, was not preselected in the ultra-safe seat of Davidson and had been beaten by a former staffer, despite having the premier’s support.

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Labor adds extra week of Senate estimates – as it happened

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Milton Dick also makes these recommendations for things he believes may improve the parliament:

Offensive words or reflections on Members Standing Orders 88 to 90, for example, provide that Members should not use offensive words or cast adverse reflections on Members, but they do not refer specifically to language or behaviour that is sexist or otherwise exclusionary or discriminatory. Revisions to these Standing Orders, so that they explicitly include that this type of conduct is highly disorderly, would be advantageous to the Chair in ruling on such matters.

Education and procedural support

Sanctions against disorder Under Standing Order 94{a), the Speaker may direct a Member to leave the Chamber for one hour if the Member’s conduct is considered disorderly. At times, this direction to leave can be advantageous to a Member or be worn as a ‘badge of honour’.

If a Member’s conduct is grossly disorderly, the Speaker can choose to name the Member in accordance with Standing Order 94{b), but in practice this option is not often used and not used for ordinary offences. It would assist the Speaker to have additional options to sanction a Member for disorderly conduct. For example, choices for increased penalties of time, and/or the introduction of cascading penalties of time for continued disorder, would be a disincentive to Members to be ejected.

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Australian government to crack down on nicotine e-cigarettes as rates of teen vaping skyrocket

Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds many children do not know they are consuming highly addictive nicotine in vapes until it is too late

So many Australian children are now addicted to nicotine from vaping that the federal health minister, Mark Butler, will propose reforms aimed at curtailing the e-cigarette industry.

Many children do not know they are consuming the highly addictive chemical until it is too late, experts say.

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NSW government under pressure to scrap further 29,000 Covid fines after court ruling

State forced to cancel 33,000 fines so far but Revenue NSW argues ‘technical’ supreme court decision ‘does not mean offences were not committed’

New South Wales residents wrongly penalised for Covid breaches say it is “crazy” it took a protracted and costly court case to force the state government to back down and withdraw 33,000 invalid fines.

The NSW government was forced on Tuesday to cancel 33,000 fines, worth an estimated $30m, for breaches of Covid-era public health orders after conceding they were too vague.

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Victorian crossbench contenders vow to push for cannabis decriminalisation if elected

Despite premier Daniel Andrews refusing to budge on the issue, Legalise Cannabis party promises to push ‘forcefully’ on drug reform

A group of progressive candidates that might hold the balance of power in the Victorian upper house have vowed to push for cannabis decriminalisation despite premier Daniel Andrews refusing to budge on the issue.

While the Legalise Cannabis party said it was too early to “count their eggs”, preliminary projections suggest they are in the running to win three upper house seats – but it is promising to push “forcefully” on drug reform if elected.

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‘Eroded public trust’: text of Scott Morrison censure motion revealed as colleagues back former PM

But one opposition MP, Bridget Archer, says she is ‘inclined’ to support Labor push against the former prime minister

Scott Morrison has thanked colleagues for their support resisting a censure motion over his multiple ministries scandal, but at least one Liberal MP will join the push against the former prime minister.

On Tuesday, the Liberal MP, Bridget Archer, told Guardian Australia she was “inclined” to support the censure and took a veiled swipe at the Liberal leadership team for deciding to oppose it without proper consultation in the party room.

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Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright charged in Darwin over fatal NT helicopter crash

Crocodile trapper, who strenuously denies any wrongdoing, handed himself in at Darwin police station over February crash that killed cast member

Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright has been charged over a helicopter crash that killed a cast member after earlier handing himself in at a Darwin police station.

Wright, 43, who strenuously denies any wrongdoing, flew from Sydney on Tuesday after Northern Territory police issued an arrest warrant.

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Australia politics live: Dutton says Coalition won’t support motion to censure Morrison – but Archer says she is ‘inclined to’

The censure motion against Scott Morrison over multiple ministries scandal will be debated in House of Representatives tomorrow. Follow the day’s news live

Bipartisanship cedes to brinkmanship in battle over integrity commission

Meanwhile, Mark Dreyfus is preparing to stare down the Liberals and the Greens over an amendment to the national anti-corruption commission legislation which Dreyfus says risks establishing the commission and the Liberals and Greens say will ensure it won’t be political.

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‘Naccflip’: Greens back down on threat to overhaul national anti-corruption commission bill

Minor party resolves to support a crossbench amendment instead of Coalition on key appointment

The national anti-corruption commission bill is set to pass after Labor successfully stared down a Greens threat to support a Coalition amendment on the appointment of the Nacc commissioner.

On Monday Guardian Australia revealed the Greens’ threat to combine with the Coalition to require a super majority of three-quarters of the Nacc oversight committee to appoint a commissioner, in a move that could have derailed the bill.

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