Category Archives: Australia news

Victoria announces free public transport for under-18s, as state’s debt projected to rise

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The Jacinta Allan government says more than 1 million children and their families will benefit from the $318m program

Every Victorian child will get free public transport from 1 January next year, the state government has pledged.

A new youth Myki, valid across the state, will save families up to $755 a year (the cost of a yearly student pass) under the scheme. Anyone under 18 in non-Myki areas will also be eligible to travel for free.

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Glossy black cockatoos could be pushed towards extinction in Victoria if burns go ahead, experts warn

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Fire in black sheoak forest of East Gippsland would destroy the birds’ food supply, conservationist says

Glossy black cockatoos could be pushed towards extinction in Victoria if planned burns of 13,000 hectares of forest go ahead, ecologists and conservationists warn.

The Victorian government is being urged to abandon the burn, which is intended to reduce bushfire risk.

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Surge in refusals for freedom of information undermines trust in Australian government, watchdog warns

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Refusal rate at its highest in a decade, prompting concern among transparency advocates

The Australian government is refusing freedom of information requests at a rate not seen for a decade, data shows, prompting concerns for transparency and accountability.

Data held by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the watchdog overseeing the FoI system, revealed the proportion of FoI requests being completely refused has shot up to 27% in the December 2024 quarter.

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A bridge too far: Brisbane grapples with the multimillion-dollar cost of revitalising an icon

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Cash-strapped council may seek to raise funds from rate-payers, state and federal governments, or road users to fix 85-year-old Story Bridge

When the ribbon was cut on Brisbane’s Story Bridge on 6 July 1940 it was not an auspicious time to open a new bridge.

Five days earlier, the infamous Tacoma Narrows Bridge had opened in Washington State.

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Australian government ‘appalled’ at Russia’s ‘sham trial’ of Oliver Jenkins who was captured in Ukraine

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The 33-year-old Melbourne man was convicted of being a ‘mercenary in an armed conflict’ by a Russian-controlled court

An Australian man captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine has been jailed for 13 years on the charge of being a “mercenary”, a move that has “appalled” the Australian government.

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on Saturday that Russia was obliged to treat Oscar Jenkins humanely as he was “a full serving member of the regular armed forces of Ukraine” and therefore “a prisoner of war”.

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Man charged over stabbing two workers transporting him from detention centre to Sydney airport

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The 28-year-old Tongan national was being moved from Villawood immigration detention centre before alleged attack and escape

New South Wales police have charged a 28-year-old man for allegedly stabbing one man and assaulting another while he was being transported from the Villawood immigration detention centre.

Tongan national Paea Teu was being taken from the detention centre to Sydney airport on Thursday when police allege he attacked two men who were transporting him. He then went on the run for two days.

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Government records show emergency killings of thousands of livestock after transport to Australian export abattoirs

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Euthanasia is most common response to welfare incidents in sheep, pigs and cattle with about 4% of animals experiencing serious incidents, research finds

Thousands of sheep, pigs and cattle are being subjected to emergency killings after transport to Australian export abattoirs, an analysis of internal government records shows.

Curtin University researchers have also found it is taking almost 11 hours, on average, to inspect animals for injury and sickness after they arrive at abattoir facilities – delays that “significantly increase the likelihood of animals requiring emergency euthanasia”.

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Are surging shark sightings and strandings linked to South Australia’s toxic algal bloom?

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Some have speculated there is a link, but it’s too soon to say, one expert says, with toxicology results expected to reveal more soon

Shark sightings and strandings are unusually high across South Australia amid a prolonged toxic algal bloom, but scientists say it’s too soon to link to recent shark incidents.

On Thursday, a swimmer was bitten by a shark at Port Noarlunga beach, 30km south of Adelaide’s CBD, one of a rising number of reported sharks swimming closer to shore – with some washing up dead on beaches.

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Bradfield counting paused until Monday – as it happened

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After a marathon legal battle spanning seven years, disgraced special forces veteran Ben Roberts-Smith will learn this morning whether he has cleared his name of war crime allegations, Australian Associated Press reports.

The Victoria Cross recipient sued Nine newspapers and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters for defamation over their reports in 2018 which claimed he had committed war crimes.

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Bradfield and Goldstein face nervous weekend wait for election result but Tim Wilson ‘very relaxed’

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AEC considers sending staff to airport ‘at late hours’ to collect final postal and overseas votes before midnight deadline

Liberal Tim Wilson has said he is “very relaxed” despite his lead over Zoe Daniel in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein slipping to 206 votes with late postal and overseas ballots from as far away as Nairobi still to be counted.

Candidates in the Sydney seat of Bradfield also face an anxious weekend, with no more counting to take place until Monday. On Friday afternoon, Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian led the independent candidate, Nicolette Boele, by just 43 votes.

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Push to save John Pesutto from bankruptcy after $2.3m Moira Deeming defamation costs order

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Online fundraiser launched as former Victorian Liberal leader hopes to avoid being forced to resign from parliament if he is unable to pay the sum

Friends of the former Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto have launched an online fundraiser in a bid to help him “avoid the possibility of bankruptcy” after he was ordered to pay more than $2.3m in costs following his loss in a defamation case brought by the Liberal MP Moira Deeming.

The federal court registrar Alison Legge handed down the decision during a short hearing on Friday in which she ordered Pesutto pay $2,308,873.11 in legal costs.

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From ‘architecturally tricky’ to ‘awe-inspiring’: winners of NSW’s 2025 National Trust heritage awards revealed

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Country hospital brought back from the ashes wins top heritage prize

A colonial country hospital almost totally destroyed by fire more than two decades ago has won the top prize in the National Trust of Australia (NSW) heritage awards.

The recognition of heritage architecture and conservation projects in the built and natural environment takes place across each state annually. New South Wales staged its awards on Friday, announcing 20 winners across 10 categories.

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Larissa Waters urges Labor to be bold while Liberals in ‘electoral wilderness’ and says Greens hurt by ‘Trump effect’

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New federal Greens leader says current political climate an opportunity for ‘real reform’ on environmental protections

Larissa Waters has urged Labor to be bold on environmental protections, saying the Liberal party being left in the “electoral wilderness” means now is the time for the Albanese government to go against its “timidity”.

The new federal Greens leader – who was elected unopposed on Thursday – has also acknowledged her party was a casualty of the Trump effect, sending voters “into the arms of Labor”.

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Juror discharged from mushroom lunch trial as child protection worker reveals what Erin Patterson told her

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Victorian supreme court judge says he received information the juror had been discussing Patterson’s case with family and friends

A juror has been discharged from the triple murder trial of Erin Patterson, after Justice Christopher Beale said he had received information the person had been discussing the case with family and friends.

Beale told the jury he had received information the juror had been discussing the case with family and friends contrary to his directions.

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Judge suggests NSW police had ‘absolutely no evidence’ to justify main strip-search in class action

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Justice Dina Yehia says manner force conducted its defence ‘is a matter, I’ll be quite honest with you, of grave concern to me’

A Sydney judge says the way the New South Wales police force defended a claim it unlawfully strip-searched a woman at a music festival – including a last-minute admission – was “of grave concern to me”.

Justice Dina Yehia made the comment in the NSW supreme court during closing arguments in a class action against the police.

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Lidia Thorpe says she would not rejoin Greens ‘even if my daughter became leader’ – as it happened

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The Reserve Bank is watching closely as the last data domino falls before a pivotal rates meeting.

The RBA’s preferred measure of inflation – the trimmed mean – fell back into target at 2.9% in April, but tightness in the labour market remains a concern for the central bank.

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Sperm donor who claims he fathered more than 180 children loses custody battle

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UK judge rejects Robert Albon’s application for parental right of three-year-old girl he had with woman in Durham

An unregistered sperm donor who says he has fathered more than 180 children has failed to gain custody of a three-year-old child he had with a Durham woman, who said she was left “broken” and “suicidal” by their encounter.

Robert Albon, who goes by the pseudonym “Joe Donor” and has appeared on This Morning and in a Channel 4 documentary, applied to have the girl live with him after a court deemed her mother was unable to look after her.

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‘Turning point’: claw print fossils found in Australia rewrite story of amniotes by 40 million years

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The discovery by two local fossil hunters on a river bank in Victoria has ‘potentially far-reaching implications’, scientists say

Fossilised claw prints found in Australia suggest amniotes – the ancestors of reptiles, birds and mammals – evolved about 40m years earlier than thought.

The footprints, in sandstone dated 354m to 358m years old, were probably made by reptiles crossing a surface dimpled by raindrops. Researchers said the trackways represent the oldest evidence of amniotes on the planet.

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Colourful price tags at Australian chemists may trick shoppers into buying full-price items, Choice says

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Survey from consumer advocacy group finds some customers confused by bright stickers and tags not necessarily advertising actual discounts

Promotional price tags used by major chemists may be enticing shoppers towards products that are not discounted at all, with new research finding bright labels are confusing one in three customers.

Consumer advocacy organisation Choice found that some pharmacies said they were offering discounts from the recommended retail price (RRP) despite having never charged the higher rate, which is a suggestion from the manufacturer.

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‘Tears blur my vision’: Australian writer jailed in Beijing thanks Albanese for support in emotional letter

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Yang Hengjun writes he can ‘only use a silent voice to thank you and all the people who care for and love me’

Jailed Chinese-Australian academic Yang Hengjun has written to Anthony Albanese from his prison cell in Beijing, thanking him for repeatedly expressing Australia’s “grave concerns” about his deteriorating health to Chinese officials.

Yang, who was given a suspended death sentence by a Chinese court in February 2024 after already serving five years in detention on espionage charges that he denies, told the prime minister “words are now failing me”.

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