Exclusive: Dr Ziad Basyouny is the first of several independents expected to challenge federal Labor seats amid the Israel-Gaza war
While there are many things driving the independent candidate Dr Ziad Basyouny to challenge Tony Burke for the seat of Watson in Sydney, there is one word that wraps them all together.
“Injustice,” Basyouny declared, speaking from his medical practice in Lakemba.
Continue reading...April Jones tells Perth court she started counselling Reynolds after reports of Brittany Higgins’ accusations senator mishandled her rape complaint
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds believed Bruce Lehrmann’s rape trial was politically motivated and Peter Dutton undermined her, a psychologist’s notes read to a defamation trial have revealed.
Senator Reynolds is suing Brittany Higgins for defamation over a series of social media posts containing alleged mistruths that she believes damaged her reputation.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Continue reading...Sarah Hanson-Young wrote to Meta demanding to know if social media giant was test-running a news ban
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young is demanding answers from Meta after Australian users were unable to post links to Australian news outlets on Threads and Instagram on Monday, sparking fears that news was being blocked on the social media sites. The company called it an error.
Publisher accounts were still able to post in some cases, but individual user accounts were unable to post links, including to the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC and Crikey, as well as some global sites such as the Guardian. International sites such as the New York Times appeared to be unaffected. The incident was first reported by Crikey.
Continue reading...Nathaniel, Stacey and Gareth Train shared ‘paranoid delusions’ and did not intend to be captured alive, inquiry into Queensland shootings told
The “morally insane” trio responsible for the Wieambilla massacre believed the Covid-19 vaccine was being used as part of a plot to turn people into “non-humans” wearing “meat suits”, an inquest has heard.
On 12 December 2022, Stacey, Gareth and Nathaniel Train ambushed and shot constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow, and Alan Dare, their neighbour. They were gunned down by the Queensland police Special Emergency Response Team that night.
Continue reading...New text reveals any party can terminate their collaboration on nuclear-powered boats with just one year’s notice
The United States, the United Kingdom or Australia could terminate their collaboration on nuclear-powered submarines with just one year’s notice, according to the terms of a new treaty designed to make the Aukus security pact a reality.
The Australian government published the text of the new agreement on Monday as it sought to dispel claims it was failing to tell the public about potentially significant political commitments to the US and the UK.
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O’Neil decries ‘low-rent politics’ on housing negotiations
Clare O’Neil says she understands there is a “massive housing crisis in this country”.
One of the frustrations I have just coming in fresh to this space, is that there’s a lot of really sort of low-rent politics being played in all this. We don’t want to get political outcomes in the parliament for political reasons.
I want to see more Australians in housing, and that is the big focus of our government.
I can tell you that my focus is not on the politicians here and it’s not on the politics of this. It is about trying to get more homes for Australians.
And I’d say again, there’s a lot of games being played in the parliament. I’m not interested in that. I don’t go to bed at night thinking about politicians and what they might say and what they might do.
Continue reading...Four other occupants of Toyota HiLux taken to hospital, where one woman in her 30s died
Two women and a baby have died after a ute rolled in Western Australia late on Saturday night.
A member of the public called police to report a crash on Geraldton-Mount Magnet Road, just east of the intersection with Gabyon-Tardie Road, about 10.50pm.
Continue reading...Asio director general says some of the countries trying to intimidate diaspora communities ‘would surprise you’
Australia’s spy boss, Mike Burgess, has confirmed that Iran is one of “at least three or four” countries involved in foreign interference in Australia’s diaspora communities.
Speaking on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, the director general of security in charge of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said he could think of “at least three or four [countries] that are we’ve actually actively found involved in foreign interference in Australia and diaspora communities”.
Continue reading...A 24-year-old man was taken to Hervey Bay hospital but died from his injuries upon arrival, police say
A 14-year-old girl has been charged with murder after allegedly stabbing a man in the back at a caravan park on Queensland’s Fraser Coast.
Det Acting Insp Craig Mansfield said there was an altercation between a 24-year-old man and the teen girl at the Big4 Hervey Bay Holiday Park, about 300km north of Brisbane, around 9pm on Saturday.
Continue reading...Robert and Anne Geeves recorded discussing how investigating police ‘can’t find nothing’
Listening devices planted in the home of a New South Wales couple accused of murder reveal the pair discussing allegations the husband tied up and raped a teenaged Amber Haigh while his wife filmed. They make no admissions on the clandestine recordings but say, “there’s not enough evidence to back it up”.
Haigh, who had an intellectual disability, was 19 when she vanished from the NSW Riverina in June 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.
Continue reading...The PM wants the focus to be on first-term achievements and cost-of-living relief but question marks remain over religious freedoms and gambling ads
After a five-week break, the spring session of the parliamentary year is about to begin. Early election rumours continue to swirl – the “break in case of emergency” date bandied around the corridors of power remains 7 December. Calmer heads will point out that voters would only hit the polls on that date if the political situation appeared irrevocably difficult for the Albanese government, given that the last months of the year will be dominated by the US election and its outcome.
Either way, there are only nine months until the very last date the next election could be held. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for the Albanese government to complete its first-term agenda, regardless of whether it returns Australians to the polls before May. Albanese wants the focus to be on cost-of-living relief and the reforms the government has already passed through parliament, but stumbling blocks threaten to derail the agenda.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Former News Corp CEO says Murdoch company’s obsession with the public broadcaster is ‘fairly unhinged’ and should largely be ignored
Kim Williams, the current chair of the ABC, wants the organisation to be “the last broadcaster standing” and one of his first acts has been to reverse the board’s decision to start reducing the corporation’s radio networks.
“It is not available to the ABC to simply withdraw a variety of broadcast services, like for example Radio National or ABC Classic or Triple J,” Williams told Guardian Australia. “They are part of our responsibility.”
Continue reading...Woman claims APM threatened to cut off her jobseeker payment after she refused to sign false time sheet. APM denies any wrongdoing
One of the country’s biggest job providers is accused of pressuring a jobseeker to sign a false description of her employment status, an alleged deception which would have triggered a publicly funded payment to the company.
The Victorian woman, who did not want to be named, claims the employment service provider APM asked her to sign paperwork confirming she had worked four weeks when she had actually spent months on sick leave. APM has strongly denied any wrongdoing.
Continue reading...FoI documents reveal the cost of Operation Bourglinster, which was criticised for encouraging a child’s fixation on the Islamic State
An Australian federal police counter-terrorism operation targeting a 13-year-old boy with autism cost more than $500,000, Guardian Australia can reveal.
Documents provided under freedom of information laws show the total cost of Operation Bourglinster, the AFP investigation into a boy known as Thomas Carrick, was $507,087. No further breakdown of the cost was provided.
Continue reading...Australian foreign minister joins UK, Germany and France in condemning comments made by Bezalel Smotrich and repeats calls for ceasefire
Deliberately starving civilians is a war crime, foreign affairs minister Penny Wong has said, joining international condemnation of comments made by the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.
On Wednesday, Smotrich suggested that deliberately starving people in Gaza might be “justified and moral”.
Continue reading...Police allege officers were threatened by man with a knife at Kingaroy hospital before Friday night’s shooting
A man shot by police outside a Queensland hospital after allegedly confronting them with a knife is in a critical condition.
At about 7.30pm on Friday, five officers attended a call at the Kingaroy hospital, where they were allegedly threatened by a man with a knife, police said.
Continue reading...Federal court judge in last year’s defamation case found Roberts-Smith tried to evade surveillance after Keelty alerted him to pending war crimes investigation in 2018
The former Australian federal police commissioner Mick Keelty has relinquished his Order of Australia honour, six years after he passed information received from serving police officers to Ben Roberts-Smith, alerting him to a pending war crimes investigation.
Keelty retired from the AFP in 2009 after a 35-year law-enforcement career, including eight as AFP commissioner.
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Continue reading...Patient says pharmacists she went to were suspicious because Vyvanse is a stimulant, causing her the ‘most dehumanising medical experience’ of her life
Emma* says she was made to feel “like a drug addict” for simply trying to access medication for her ADHD.
When she was prescribed Vyvanse in June, she was relieved to realise she had found a treatment that would make it easier to live with the developmental disorder that affects the brain’s executive functioning.
Continue reading...Queensland Conservation Council is urging the state government to protect the endangered greater glider population as logging continues
There is “damning evidence” of logging occurring close to endangered greater glider populations, conservationists say as they call on the Queensland government to urgently act on a promise to create a park to protect the species.
Volunteers used drones in July to film logging in St Mary state forest near Maryborough, about three kilometres from where gliders had been seen.
Continue reading...The $21.6bn extension from Chatswood to Sydenham, crossing under Sydney harbour, is finally on the brink of opening. Join us on a tour
The next stretch of the Sydney Metro, set to open imminently, has been billed as a game-changer for city commuters.
Not only will the Chatswood to Sydenham section of the $21.6bn line drastically cut travel times and introduce a new crossing under Sydney harbour, it’s also set to dictate settlement patterns, with the New South Wales government basing much of its flagship housing policy along the corridor.
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