Category Archives: Australia news

Lidia Thorpe to refer herself to privileges committee over relationship with ex-bikie

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Greens senator’s move heads off hostile referral by Coalition over possible perceived conflict of interest due to former role on law enforcement committee

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe will refer herself to the Senate privileges committee for possible investigation of her previously undisclosed relationship with former bikie leader Dean Martin.

Thorpe will write to the Senate president on Monday assenting to an inquiry into the possible perceived conflict of interest arising from the relationship due to her former role on the joint law enforcement committee.

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Sydney’s property prices dropped 10% this year, with $450 a day lost from average home

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Decline comes as RBA documents indicate values may sink as much as 20% nationally from their February peak by end of 2024

Sydney’s property prices have fallen by more than 10% since their mid-February peak, shedding almost $450 a day in value on an average home, and leading other major markets lower, CoreLogic said.

The 10.1% decline for home values in the harbour city so far comes as documents from the Reserve Bank of Australia indicate average property values may sink as much as 20% nationally from their recent highs by the end of 2024. That decline would be the steepest since the 1980s if realised.

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‘He’s a lucky lad’: teenager sent flying into water as shark bites surf ski at Adelaide beach

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Nathaniel Drummond, 19, was competing in a race at South Australia’s Seacliff Beach when the large shark attacked his vessel

A teenager escaped unscathed after a “big shark” attacked his surf ski during a race at an Adelaide beach, tearing a hole in the vessel.

Nathaniel Drummond, 19, was competing in a surf ski race at Seacliff Beach in Adelaide’s south on Sunday when a shark, believed to be a great white, sent him flying into the water.

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Jury discharged in trial of Sydney swim coach Kyle Daniels after failing to reach verdicts on 11 charges

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Prosecutors to decide whether to pursue third trial after jurors acquitted Mosman swim instructor of 10 charges but could not reach decision on others

The jury in the sexual abuse retrial of Sydney swim coach Kyle James Henk Daniels has been discharged after being unable to reach verdicts on 11 charges.

Prosecutors must now decide whether to put the 24-year-old on trial for a third time.

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US prison operator begins $750,000-a-day contract for Nauru offshore regime

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Previously accused of ‘egregious’ security failures, MTC will be paid $47.3m to oversee detention of 111 refugees and asylum seekers for two months

The private prison operator now in charge of Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru will be paid more than three-quarters of a million dollars every day to provide “garrison and welfare services” for a little over 100 people.

The US-based Management and Training Corporation – a company previously accused in US courts of “gross negligence’’ and “egregious” security failures – has been awarded a contract for $47.3m covering just 62 days of work on the Pacific island.

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UN accuses Australia of ‘clear breach’ of human rights obligations as it suspends tour of detention facilities

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New South Wales and Queensland have blocked access to some facilities with NSW corrections minister saying people can’t just ‘wander through at their leisure’

The United Nations has suspended its tour of Australian detention facilities and accused the country of a “clear breach” of its obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (Opcat).

The New South Wales government has refused inspectors entry into any facilities in the state and Queensland has blocked access to mental health wards.

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Australia will join Biden’s global pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030, Albanese confirms

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Funding of more than $3bn will support agricultural methane reduction, clean tech initiatives and the commercialisation of seaweed feed supplement

The Albanese government has confirmed it will join Joe Biden’s global pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030, as the prime minister warned climate change is increasing the frequency of Australia’s extreme weather events.

Guardian Australia revealed in June that Labor was considering signing the pledge, and the climate change minister Chris Bowen confirmed on Sunday Australia would be joining more than 100 other countries by making the commitment in the run-up to United Nations-led climate talks in Egypt next month.

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SES urges residents of several NSW areas to evacuate – as it happened

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Flood waters in Victorian border towns reach record levels as residents of several NSW towns are urged to evacuate. This blog is now closed

Taylor: potential inflation decrease ‘a good thing’

Taylor is now discussing inflation and says the Coalition believes inflation will be down to 2.5% in the next financial year according to Labor’s forecasts.

I’ve got to say many of the investments I’ve seen out in regional New South Wales have added to productivity, very significant impact.

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E-scooter safety: Australian states and territories under pressure after spate of fatal crashes

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After three riders died in September and injuries rise, doctors are pushing for better helmet compliance and a rethink on regulations

State and territory governments have largely resisted calls from doctors for tighter regulation of e-scooters, despite a recent spate of accidents that caused serious injuries and deaths.

Last month three Australians died while riding e-scooters, doubling the number of fatalities since 2018, when the first rental scheme was rolled out in Queensland.

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Patients dying daily due to poor ‘soft skills’ among Australian surgeons, experts warn

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Nearly all avoidable deaths in surgery exhibit a breakdown in communication and cooperation, research shows, as doctors call for system reform

More than 1,000 Australians die unnecessarily in hospital each year due to avoidable failures by surgeons, according to experts calling for a senate inquiry.

Graham Beaumont, PhD, and Dr John North are both long-term members of audit committees that review surgical mortality in Australia.

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Business racing to use facial recognition technology, raising concerns the law is too slow to catch up

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Clubs NSW says the scheme will be used to combat problem gambling, but experts warn of a lack of safeguards and regulation

The rollout of facial recognition technology in all New South Wales pubs and clubs shows how business is forging ahead collecting biometric information before the law has had a chance to catch up, experts warn.

The NSW government this week introduced new laws allowing the use of facial recognition throughout pubs and clubs, despite not yet developing rules to guide the rollout.

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Optus data breach: customers yet to be reimbursed for passport replacements

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Government has not finalised process with the telco for passports to be replaced for free after 100,000 numbers were released

The federal government has not yet finalised a process with Optus for customers affected by its recent data breach to have their passports replaced for free, with no victims yet having their costs reimbursed nearly a month on from Anthony Albanese’s public demand.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says about 100,000 passport numbers were released in the Optus breach but that customers do not actually need to replace their passports, citing crackdowns on the use of those documents for identity verification processes.

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Housing, Indigenous and domestic violence services to receive extra $560m in federal budget

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Exclusive: The partial indexation of funding aims to help community organisations cope with rising costs

Community organisations such as housing, Indigenous and domestic violence services will receive an extra $560m over four years in Labor’s first budget since its re-election.

The partial indexation of funding revealed by the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, aims to help community services keep up with rising costs.

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Australia and Japan sign new security deal; flood waters peaking in northern Victoria – as it happened

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Volunteers place 195,000 sandbags in and around Echuca, which could reach devastating 1993 flood levels. This blog is now closed

Australian ultrarunner on pace to break daily marathon world record

Did you know that you have the genes to be a long distance runner?

If you go back to our early genetics, basically, everyone has the genes to be a distance runner. Back 50,000 years ago, our survival depended on us being able to walk and jog long distances to be able to get food, and catch animals.

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Lismore residents warned of major flooding as heavy rain falls along the east coast

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Water is spilling over a levee in the Murray River border town of Echuca-Moama, as residents anxiously wait to see if it will hold back flood’s peak

Lismore residents have been warned to brace for another round of flooding as heavy rain falls along the east coast, and the Murray River town of Echuca-Moama anxiously waits to see if its levees will hold back the forecast peak on Sunday.

The Murray River at the Echuca Wharf gauge was expected to exceed the 1993 flood levels of 94.77 metres AHD on Saturday afternoon, and reach a peak of 95m on Sunday or Monday.

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Anthony Albanese and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida sign new agreement to boost security and energy ties

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The updated security agreement aimed at sending a message to China will see Japanese troops train with their Australian counterparts

Japan and Australia will boost their security and energy ties as the prime ministers of both countries spruik the need for peace in the Indo-Pacific.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, met in Perth on Saturday at an annual Australia-Japan leaders’ meeting.

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Hancock Prospecting withdraws from $15m funding deal with Netball Australia after players revolt

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Gina Rinehart’s mining company instead offers short-term funding until the organisation finds a new sponsor

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has withdrawn a lucrative funding deal from Netball Australia after a players’ revolt against the company.

The mining company announced on Saturday that it would withdraw its $15m funding from Netball Australia. It has instead offered short-term funding until the organisation finds a new sponsor.

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Brisbane-based Indigenous art collective proppaNOW wins prestigious global prize

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Curator at school which awards Jane Lombard Prize says the artists’ work would ‘galvanise arts and social justice communities’ in New York


Indigenous Australian art collective proppaNOW has won a prestigious prize that will take them to New York next year after the selecting jury found their practices would serve as “models for political empowerment throughout the world”.

But don’t expect traditional Aboriginal artworks.

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Handwritten notes, door-knocking, recipes: real estate agents turn ‘desperate’ across Australia

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Amid falling house prices and interest rate rises, agents are turning to increasingly frenzied measures to hunt for sellers

The first time Neha Samar received a handwritten note in her letterbox asking if she would be willing to sell her home, she threw it in the bin and forgot about it. The third time she received a similar note, it felt “creepy”.

Samar has lived in her Shepparton property, north-east of Melbourne, since 2018, but this is the first year real estate agents have come knocking.

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Victoria Greens spruik family ties in election pitch as ageing millennials defy drift to conservatism

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Reproductive rights and parenting become hot topics in state election as parties on the left court women and young families

Kissing babies may be an election campaign trail cliche but for the Victorian Greens, it might also be sign their party – just like their supporter base – has grown up.

Announcing a plan for five days of reproductive leave for public sector workers this week, leader Samantha Ratnam, deputy Ellen Sandell and their candidate for the seat of Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri, were joined by their children under two.

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