Category Archives: Australia news

Speculation grows Anthony Albanese will meet Chinese leader during hectic summit season

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Prime minister to see Britain’s Rishi Sunak and leaders of Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand and is likely to catch up with Joe Biden

Speculation is mounting that Anthony Albanese will meet either the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, or the president, Xi Jinping, during the hectic November summit season, which kicks off in Cambodia this weekend.

Australia’s prime minister leaves on Friday for the East Asia and Australia-Asean summits in Phnom Penh before travelling to the G20 in Bali and completing his trip at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Bangkok towards the end of next week.

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Australia gives world-first approval for faecal transplants to restore gut health

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BiomeBank in Adelaide collects healthy genetic material from the microbiomes of donors to treat potentially deadly bacterial condition

Australia has given regulatory approval for faecal transplants, the first country in the world to do so.

For such a transplant, poo donors – who have to meet a list of conditions – provide healthy genetic material from their microbiomes. The microbes are collected and delivered into the gastrointestinal tract of an unhealthy person, where they have been shown to treat conditions such as the potentially deadly bacteria Clostridium difficile colitis (C diff).

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I’m a Celebrity: MPs and peers voting for Hancock to do ‘grim’ tasks, says minister

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Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, claims ‘quite a lot’ of politicians downloading TV show app

A large number of politicians in parliament are voting for Matt Hancock to perform “grim” tasks on I’m A Celebrity, a senior minister has suggested.

After the former Conservative health secretary was pelted with sludge and insects on his first night in the Australian jungle, a former cabinet colleague said even technophobic peers back home in Britain were downloading an app used to vote contestants into performing gruesome “bushtucker trials”.

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Australia news live: Medibank hacker demands ‘US$1 per customer’ ransom; ‘rotten egg gas’ problem in navy patrol boats

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Defence officials say there is an issue with hydrogen sulphide in the vessels’ waste systems. Follow the day’s news live

Coalition’s staff cap has fuelled lack of payment integrity, Shorten says

Bill Shorten goes on to criticise the NDIS staff cap implemented by the Coalition government:

When there were 180,000 participants in the scheme, the staff numbers were around 3,500 to 4,000. And the government of the day said, ‘OK, no more staff.’

Now the scheme has half a million people-plus, and what’s happened is that we’ve brought in contractors or labour hire or partners in the community and the scheme hasn’t been well, in my opinion, supervised and well loved.

I don’t blame someone for seeking to get support for the child. What does make me wonder is the state school systems providing the support for kids with developmental and learning delays? Are they doing enough or not? How can you force their hand to do it so that these people aren’t going on the NDIS?

Originally, when the NDIS was created, it was to be a 50/50 split, at the moment the federal government is paying 64% to 66% of the scheme and states are paying in the mid 30s.

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Octopuses throw objects at one another, researchers observe

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Scientists suggest octopuses propel material as part of den cleaning, but also in interactions and with purpose

They hunt alone, are prone to a scrap, and even cannibalise one another. And octopuses appear to have another antisocial arm to their behaviour: they hurl jet-propelled clouds of silt, algae and even shells.

Researchers studying Octopus tetricus, the common Sydney octopus, have filmed the cephalopods gathering debris in their front arms and web and jet-propelling it away from their body using water ejected from their siphon – the latter having been shifted between their rear arms for the purpose.

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Remains of 18 Indigenous people held by UK museums return to Australia

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Return is part of painstaking effort to recover thousands of ancestors stolen from traditional lands who now lie in more than 20 countries

The remains of 18 Indigenous people have been returned to Australia by two British museums, part of the laborious and painstaking effort to recover thousands of ancestors stolen from their traditional lands which now lie in more than 20 countries around the world.

At midnight Australia time on Wednesday, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum returned 17 ancestors to the custodianship of the federal government, which will hold them while further research is undertaken “to determine the traditional custodians”. Another was given to the custodianship of the south-east First Nations people of South Australia, who were represented by Robyn Campbell.

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Philanthropists acquire nearly 4,000 hectares of NSW koala habitat for conservation

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Australian Wildlife Conservancy to manage the site allowing ecologists to restore crucial habitat for multiple species

Almost 4,000 hectares of koala habitat in the Hunter region of New South Wales will be protected after the land was privately acquired for conservation.

Sydney philanthropists Andrew and Jane Clifford bought the property north of Newcastle, which scientists from the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) estimate is habitat for more than 100 vertebrate species, including the endangered koala and 11 other animals listed as threatened.

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Inquiry consensus to pave way for Labor’s anti-corruption body

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Integrity bill likely to be legislated before end of 2022 despite crossbench and Coalition disagreements on some issues

The national anti-corruption commission inquiry will recommend parliament pass the government’s bill, paving the way for Labor’s model for the integrity body to be legislated in the final parliamentary sitting fortnight of 2022.

The joint select committee will report consensus on Thursday, underscoring support across the political spectrum for the integrity body, despite crossbench and Coalition attempts to amend Labor’s model.

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Police investigate possible mid-air collision after two pilots die in Queensland light aircraft crash

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Sole occupants killed after glider and another light aircraft crash in paddock near Gympie in ‘tragic incident’, police say

The sole occupants of two light aircraft have died after crashing into a paddock, as Queensland police investigate whether they collided mid-air.

Emergency crews responded to the incident involving a glider and another light aircraft at Kybong, near Gympie, at about 3pm on Wednesday.

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Indigenous voice referendum should be sooner rather than later, Uluru statement co-chairs say

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Pat Anderson and Prof Megan Davis urge Labor to not waste momentum and call on the media to ‘rise to this occasion’

The Uluru Statement from the Heart co-chair Pat Anderson has urged the federal government to not waste “momentum” for the Indigenous voice to parliament, calling for a referendum on the constitutional change sooner rather than later.

Anderson said the national vote could occur in October 2023, the most recently proposed of many mooted dates, as she called for the nation’s media to “rise to this occasion” in reporting on Indigenous constitutional recognition.

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NSW eyes voluntary gambling cards as minister blasts pokies venues as ‘bloated concrete bunkers’

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Retiring planning minister Rob Stokes says poker machine gambling has turned clubs into ‘brutal, unwelcoming junk spaces’ and ‘enslaved’ people

A significantly expanded voluntary trial of cashless gambling cards is firming as the most likely response to a scathing New South Wales Crime Commission report, which found only a mandatory scheme would be effective in combating money laundering in the state’s pubs and clubs.

As pressure mounts on the government to tackle gambling reform in the lead-up to the March election, a senior government minister, Rob Stokes, upped the ante with a blistering speech on Wednesday night, saying the state’s clubs have been “distorted and disfigured” by their reliance on poker machine revenue. He called for a ban on “gambling advertising that programs young people to a lifetime of addiction”.

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Australia pays to maintain trouble-plagued Taipan helicopters no longer being used by navy

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Officials defend cost, saying it will ensure parts have resale value once government decides whether to dump the fleet entirely

The Australian government is paying to maintain seven trouble-plagued Taipan helicopters in a Brisbane warehouse after the navy ceased using them.

Officials have defended the cost of this work, saying it would ensure the parts still have resale value once the government decides whether to dump the fleet entirely.

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Police allege Sydney woman was choked, sexually assaulted by Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka after meeting on Tinder

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NSW police facts sheet filed with Downing Centre local court alleges woman feared for her life during alleged attack in Rose Bay home

A Sydney woman has said she feared for her life on a date after meeting Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka on Tinder.

The woman, who cannot be identified, was allegedly sexually assaulted four times in her Rose Bay home on 2 November after going out for drinks and pizza with the international sports star.

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Australian man jailed for 129 years in child sexual abuse case in Philippines

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It is the second conviction for Peter Gerard Scully who was already serving a life sentence for the rape and trafficking of girls

An Australian man has been sentenced to 129 years in a Philippine jail as part of a child sexual abuse case involving victims as young as 18 months, a prosecutor has said.

“I hope this sends a very strong message to all abusers, all human traffickers, that crime really does not pay,” Merlynn Barola-Uy, a regional prosecutor in the southern city of Cagayan de Oro, said on Wednesday.

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Coalition complains of ‘witch-hunt’ during question time – as it happened

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Federal government paying contractor $900,000 for review of naval shipbuilding

The federal government is paying a contractor $900,000 to carry out a new review of naval shipbuilding issues with the findings due by January.

Australia has the expertise and capability. What we don’t have yet is the scale to deliver the graduates and skills in the quantities required …

I’m here to tell you today is that whatever submarine design ends up being chosen, we won’t be able to build and operate it locally unless we address the fundamental issue of Australia’s workforce capability gap.

Nuclear science should clearly be the first cab off the rank for this program, but this approach will also be necessary across the broader advanced capabilities of Aukus including in cyber and computing, engineering, space and quantum physics.

An Aukus pathways program, jointly developed with Defence, could feature a portfolio of tailored degree programs providing a pathway for students to gain qualifications in an Aukus-related field and then progress to a position in Defence working on Aukus programs.

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Bernard Collaery case: Australian government’s legal bill spirals despite dropped prosecution

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Legal bill grows by $248,000 in three months amid ongoing pursuit of secrecy

The Australian government is amassing an ever-increasing legal bill in its ongoing pursuit of secrecy in the Bernard Collaery case, spending a further $250,000 since dropping the prosecution in July.

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, intervened to end the Collaery prosecution in July, a decision widely welcomed by lawyers, human rights advocates and Collaery’s supporters.

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Victorians’ Covid contact tracing data sent to crime authority for potential use by Palantir

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Exclusive: Australian data security experts described the July 2020 move as ‘dubious’ and ‘outrageous’

Under pressure to control spiralling Covid cases in July 2020, the Victorian government sent contact tracing data to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission in the hope a controversial data mining platform might help identify the source of mystery cases.

Data security experts described the move as “dubious” and “outrageous”.

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Queensland eases alcohol restrictions for Cape York community amid trend away from prohibition

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Equivalent of 12 cans of mid-strength beer can be carried in Pormpuraaw, leaving just five ‘dry’ communities

Queensland has taken another step towards ending its prohibition on alcohol in remote Indigenous communities, with restrictions being eased in Pormpuraaw, on Cape York.

The community of about 600 people on the western coast of Cape York is among 15 local government areas in Queensland where alcohol is restricted and was among a handful in which it was banned entirely.

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Amid warnings of a looming Covid wave, how do Australia’s vaccination rates stack up?

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With Australia consistently reporting more than 30,000 Covid cases a week, how does our vaccination rollout compare to similar countries?

Government health officials are warning of a new wave of Covid cases, predicting transmission will increase in coming weeks.

So what does the latest data show for the rollout of vaccinations in Australia, and how do we compare with other countries?

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‘Not fit for purpose’: government looks to amend ‘antiquated’ referendum laws ahead of voice vote

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Linda Burney says government will propose changes to modernise the century-old act before the end of the year

A leading constitutional expert says Australia’s century-old laws around referendums are “not fit for purpose”, suggesting the government could look to amend rules around donations, funding disclosures and social media advertising before the voice to parliament vote.

Linda Burney, the minister for Indigenous Australians, said the government would propose changes to “modernise” the Referendum Act before the end of the year, and promised a civics campaign and more information about the voice campaign in early 2023.

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