Category Archives: Australia news

Treasurer says gas review likely to result in mandatory code of conduct as energy costs soar

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Government has also not ruled out using threat of export limits to guarantee more domestic supply, Jim Chalmers says

The Albanese government will toughen gas market regulation and intends to make the industry code of conduct mandatory, with the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, also not ruling out export limits or cash handouts as soaring bills put pressure on household budgets.

On Sunday, Chalmers signalled a review, announced in the budget and being conducted by the competition regulator, would likely include mandatory price regulation and a requirement for “meaningful offers” to domestic consumers.

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‘Fix the faults’: Coles criticised for using carbon credits from controversial project

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Carbon-neutral farmer says use of offsets from Armoobilla project ‘outrageous’ but company says they meet ‘rigorous requirements’ of government standard

A farmer who was assured by Coles that it would look for better carbon offsets for its “carbon-neutral” beef has described the supermarket’s continued use of credits from the Queensland Armoobilla regeneration project as “outrageous”, claiming the project is a “greenwash”.

When carbon-neutral sheep and cattle farmer Mark Wootton called on companies to ensure the integrity of farm offsets used for carbon-neutral products back in April, Coles staff had assured him that the supermarket would “look for a better alternative” once their contract with Armoobilla finished in July.

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‘Buying bad’: the black market where access to hacked Australian data can cost just $500

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Some sites that mediate the sale of hacked data use Reddit-style upvoting systems to weed out scammers and law enforcement

When personal data is stolen in a breach, such as the recent high-profile attacks on Optus and Medibank, it often begins a journey through a shadowy criminal marketplace which follows surprisingly traditional models of supply and demand.

Passwords, personal information, copies of identity documents and contact details of victims may pass through a web of transactions, mediated in online forums or hidden on the dark web, and denominated in cryptocurrency, before ending up in the hands of those who plan to exploit them.

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Coalition attacks repatriation of women and children from Syria – as it happened

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A further 40 who remain in Syria are expected to be returned in two separate repatriations in coming weeks. This blog is now closed

Victorian flood risk persists with downpours ahead

Persistent rain may cause more flash flooding across Victoria over the long weekend as the state braces for possibly its coldest Melbourne Cup Day in nearly three decades, AAP reports.

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Australian women and children trapped in Syria back in Sydney as Coalition condemns ‘inexcusable’ mission

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Children in a ‘wild new world’ but mothers could face continued controls, including ankle monitors and curfews

Four Australian women and 13 children who had been detained in an internally displaced persons camp since the fall of Islamic State in 2019 in Syria have arrived safely in Sydney.

However, the mothers, who were partners to Islamic State members, could face continued controls, including ankle monitors and curfews, based off a fear they had been radicalised while in Syria.

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Sydney University sued by lecturer alleging age, sex and disability discrimination

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Marketing lecturer Geoffrey Fripp is pursuing more than $526,000 in damages

A Sydney university lecturer says he was told he was too old to be promoted, underpaid hundreds of thousands of dollars and forced to sleep in his car.

In his federal court lawsuit, Geoffrey Fripp accuses the University of Sydney of age, sex and disability discrimination as well as breaches of employment law.

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Australia drops opposition to treaty banning nuclear weapons at UN vote

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After former Coalition government repeatedly sided with US against it, Labor has shifted position to abstain

Australia has dropped its opposition to a landmark treaty banning nuclear weapons in a vote at the United Nations in New York on Saturday.

While Australia was yet to actually join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the shift in its voting position to “abstain” after five years of “no” is seen by campaigners as a sign of progress given the former Coalition government repeatedly sided with the United States against it.

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Aboriginal cultural heritage protected as NSW rejects Glendell coalmine expansion

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Wonnarua people want Ravensworth Homestead added to the state heritage register and to become a site of reconciliation

The New South Wales independent planning commission has for the first time ruled against a coalmine extension in Singleton.

Scott Franks and Robert Lester, representatives of the Plains Clans of the Wonnarua People (PCWP), learned this week that priceless Wonnarua cultural heritage in the Upper Hunter region – centred on the Ravensworth Homestead – would be protected because the planning commission had denied Glencore’s Glendell coalmine expansion.

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Sophie Nicholls is a freelance writer based in the Hunter Valley

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Cybercrime in Australia has been on the rise for years, but Optus and Medibank have been wake-up calls

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Experts say the recent prominence of data breaches is just companies being more forthcoming and the media more focused on reporting them

It might seem like data breaches are occurring more frequently than ever in the wake of the Optus cyber-attack, but while cybercrime incidents are constantly on the rise, Australia isn’t really a hot new target.

Since Optus first disclosed its massive data breach at the end of September, breaches or attacks have been reported by Medibank, Woolworths’ MyDeal, EnergyAustralia, Vinomofo and Medlab.

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Parks director should be accountable for ‘offence’ to Kakadu sacred site, protection authority says

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AAPA seeks leave to appeal against NT supreme court decision that found director is exempt from prosecution under state’s laws

A fight to hold Parks Australia to account over a walking track built through a sacred site in the Kakadu national park could be heading to the high court after a lower court found a Northern Territory law did not apply to the federal organisation.

The Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) has sought leave to appeal against a decision by the NT supreme court in September which found the director of Parks Australia was exempt from prosecution under the NT Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act.

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Kumanjayi Walker inquest: Zachary Rolfe talked about killing, former fiancee tells coroner

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Claudia Campagnaro says she ‘wasn’t really surprised’ the NT police officer had shot dead the teenager in 2019

A Northern Territory police officer who killed an Indigenous teenager talked about killing before the incident, his former fiancee has told an inquest.

Claudia Campagnaro told police she wasn’t surprised Const Zachary Rolfe had shot dead Kumanjayi Walker during a bungled outback arrest.

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‘I love you all!’: boy sucked into stormwater drain in Melbourne praises rescuers after amazing escape

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Boy, 11, was riding bike when sucked into drain and under road before he managed to grab on to metal grate when his helmet caught

An 11-year-old boy has had an amazing escape after being sucked into a flooded stormwater drain and washed 10 metres under a road in Melbourne.

The boy was riding his bike with a friend in Altona Meadows on Thursday afternoon when he accidentally rode across a submerged drain and was sucked underwater.

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Lismore residents can take their homes with them under $800m buyback program

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If residents choose not to move their home or if it is not possible, they will be sold or stripped for materials

In the nine months since floods gutted Harper Dalton’s South Lismore home, he has been waiting for two things: a land buyback and the ability to pick up the redwood home and move it to higher ground.

On Friday it emerged that northern rivers residents eligible for buybacks under a new joint federal and state $800m housing scheme will be allowed to do just that.

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Land clearing at Queensland’s Deebing Creek angers Indigenous protesters

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Bulldozers were halted after activists and First Nations people held a smoking ceremony at the site

Clearing has begun on land in south-eastern Queensland upon which Indigenous protesters claim the bones of their ancestors lay and an unrecognised massacre took place.

Bulldozers on the former Deebing Creek Aboriginal reserve were halted on Friday, however, when the protesters held a smoking ceremony on the site on Ipswich’s southern outskirts.

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No immediate power price relief for households and businesses as Australia’s energy ministers meet

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Ministers agree to give regulator more powers to ensure supplies while plans for a capacity market could be ready in December

Households and businesses will get no immediate relief on their utility bills after Friday’s meeting of energy ministers, with discussions instead aimed at ensuring electricity and gas supplies will be ample next winter.

Federal, state and territory energy ministers gathered in Melbourne for an update on power and gas markets, and to discuss progress on creating some form of a capacity market that would bolster the reliance of the energy sector as coal-fired plants exit.

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Australia news live: Noel Pearson says ‘racism will diminish’ with Indigenous recognition; energy ministers to look at gas price cap

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In his Boyer lecture, Pearson said Australia’s ‘terrible ideology of the denial of recognition’ needs to end. Follow the day’s news live

Perrottet calls for greater infrastructure funding

Perrottet also used the press conference to call for greater infrastructure funding for NSW from the federal government, as he has done many times in recent weeks.

There are other states who aren’t doing the heavy lifting, and I say to them, start building as much as we are in our great state.

We should continue to get more funding from a commonwealth government. I’m always going to stand up for the people of NSW.

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‘A slap in the face’: NSW state housing push set to clip Kiama’s green hills

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Kiama mayor says chosen site has no support infrastructure and viable alternatives for development were overlooked

A portion of the famous rolling green hills near Kiama, on the New South Wales south coast, is under threat from a housing development, after the state government overrode Kiama municipal council zoning to allow a 440-house development.

The South Kiama project is part of a push by the Perrottet government to ease housing pressures, but the Kiama mayor, Neil Reilly, said viable alternative sites on non-rural land were ignored, including an old quarry at nearby Bombo and vacant land within Kiama’s town boundaries.

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ClubsNSW suggests use of facial recognition could go beyond identifying problem gamblers

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Exclusive: Lobby group links technology to identification of people barred from venues for disorderly behaviour

People kicked out of New South Wales pubs for being too drunk could be tracked via facial recognition technology if new laws introduced to parliament last week are not changed, with the powerful gambling lobby refusing to rule out expanding the use of the controversial tool.

A week after ClubsNSW announced it would roll out facial recognition technology to pubs and clubs across the state as a harm minimisation tool that could “only be used to enforce self exclusion” by gamblers, it now concedes its use will be more widespread.

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Cassius Turvey killing: mother questions why police took only a brief statement before he died

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‘We did not hear from any detectives, no police. Nothing. For five full days. That was their opportunity’ said Mechelle Turvey

The grieving mother of 15-year-old Cassius Turvey, killed in an alleged violent attack in Perth, has paid tribute to her son while questioning why police took only a brief statement from the schoolboy before he died in hospital.

Mechelle Turvey, the mother of the year 9 student, said the family has been left heartbroken after the attack. She remembered him as a “young leader” who loved basketball, school and his friends. The Noongar teenager died on the weekend.

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Australian schools science roadshow drops Santos as naming rights sponsor

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Exclusive: Organiser says income from gas company was tied to deal and ‘we are now searching for a new sponsor’

Organisers of a nationwide schools science roadshow say they have dropped gas company Santos as its main sponsor after a senior climate scientist said the fossil fuel funding was inappropriate.

The Science Schools Foundation, which runs the Santos Science Experience, told Guardian Australia its board had decided not to renew the gas company as its naming rights sponsor for next year.

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