Category Archives: Australia news

Albanese government continues push to keep parts of Bernard Collaery case secret

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Human Rights Law Centre says new attorney general should abandon the appeal and let judgment ‘finally see the light’

Lawyers for the Albanese government will maintain a push by the former attorney general to impose secrecy over parts of a key decision in the Bernard Collaery case.

Earlier this month, the attorney general Mark Dreyfus made the momentous decision to end the prosecution of Collaery for the lawyer’s role in exposing Australia’s 2004 bugging of Timor-Leste’s government, along with his client, a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer known only as Witness K.

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Anthony Albanese rules out banning fossil fuel projects, citing risk to Australian economy

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PM says if Australia didn’t export coal there would be ‘replacement coal from other countries that’s likely to produce higher emissions’

Anthony Albanese says Labor will not support a moratorium on fossil fuel projects because doing so would have a “devastating impact on the Australian economy”.

Ahead of the introduction of legislation on Wednesday enshrining Labor’s 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets, the prime minister told ABC TV on Tuesday night a moratorium was “the policy of the Greens”.

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Gordon Copeland inquest: inspector says police would not have called off search if all details were known

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Senior inspector who oversaw search for drowned Gomeroi man says she did not read officer statements before attending scene

A senior inspector in charge of the search for a Gomeroi man who drowned in a river has told the inquest into his death the police search was called off before officers knew all of the details.

Inspector Helen McWilliam coordinated the search for 22-year-old Gordon Copeland, who drowned in the Gwydir River in the early hours of 10 July 2021. Police called off the search after three days, and his body was not found until authorities reopened the search three months later in October after sustained community pressure.

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Queensland police told victim her assault complaint was not ‘valid’ after speaking to perpetrator, inquiry hears

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Commission of inquiry into QPS response to domestic and family violence hears from women who say police did not take them seriously

A victim-survivor was told by a Queensland police officer to focus on being a “good mother” after reporting a “significant assault” by her ex-partner, a commission of inquiry has heard.

The inquiry into Queensland police service’s (QPS) responses to domestic and family violence on Tuesday heard multiple accounts from disillusioned victims who said their complaints had not been taken seriously.

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Covid hospitalisations to grow another 60% from current record, Queensland modelling shows

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State government says it is making extra hospital beds available and scaling up ambulance coordination

Covid-19 hospitalisations in Queensland are not likely to peak for another month, with the latest modelling projecting a maximum caseload of about 1,660 in late August.

The estimate represents a 60% increase of close to 600 on existing hospital numbers, which are sitting at slightly more than 1,000, the highest level of the pandemic so far.

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Albanese believes in politics with purpose – he’s determined to pop Morrison’s ‘Canberra bubble’ | Katharine Murphy

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As PM, Scott Morrison focused on stopping Labor, but at the opening of the new parliament, Anthony Albanese envisioned a more humanist business

We might look back in three years, or sooner, and conclude the modest promise of the opening day of the new 47th parliament was a mirage, or worse, a lie. But Tuesday conveyed the sense of a corner being turned.

Scott Morrison wasn’t there. His absence was probably for the best, because the style of politics that Morrison personified was repudiated in myriad ways.

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Scott Morrison ditches parliament’s return to speak at Japan event not starting until Thursday

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Former PM says he is ‘unable to attend’ first sitting week in Canberra as Labor calls for details about Tokyo engagement

Scott Morrison has skipped the first sitting week of parliament to speak at a conservative leaders’ summit in Tokyo that does not begin until Thursday afternoon.

The former Australian prime minister and member for Cook announced on Monday that “as a consequence” of having accepted the invitation he is “unable to attend the first three sitting days of the new parliament this week”, from Tuesday 26 July to Thursday 28 July.

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Zoe Daniel and Sally Sitou call for climate action in first speeches to parliament – as it happened

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Cash: No way the Coalition will support a lower emissions target

The next interview on ABC radio RN is with the shadow employment minister, Michaelia Cash, who has a lot to say about the scrapping of the ABCC. Cash, you may remember, was one of its biggest supporters while in government.

The Coalition won more votes than the Australian Labor party.

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Manly players to boycott NRL match over club’s pride jersey

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Sea Eagles face the prospect of being without several players for the Roosters clash, but the strip has sold out online

The NRL has given its backing to Manly over its decision to wear a pride jersey this week as the club prepares to lose up to seven players due to a reported boycott over the inclusivity initiative.

Manly announced on Sunday they would sport a rainbow jersey in Thursday night’s clash with the Sydney Roosters but according to reports on Monday, several players opted against wearing the one-off design.

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Mother charged with murder of three children who were found dead after Port Hedland house fire

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A 10-year-old girl and two boys, aged seven and five months, found dead inside a house fire in the Western Australian town on 19 July

A woman has been charged with the murder of her three children after their bodies were found in a house fire in the Western Australian town of Port Hedland.

A 10-year-old girl and two boys, aged seven and five months, were found dead inside the Anderson Street property by firefighters who responded to the blaze on 19 July.

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WA ring road approved by federal government threatens ancient trees and endangered wildlife

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Tanya Plibersek’s department gave green light despite state of environment report finding Australia’s natural heritage is in poor and deteriorating health

Ancient giant trees and threatened birds, mammals and ecosystems are being sacrificed for a ring road south of Perth approved by the Albanese government, leading conservationists say.

Habitat for the critically endangered western ringtail possum and endangered black cockatoos will be allowed to be cleared for a section of the $1.25bn Bunbury outer ring road.

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Covid hospitalisations in Australia hit new record, surpassing January peak

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Experts say lower ICU figures partly due to aged care deaths, while AMA vice president labels number of Covid patients ‘massive’

The number of Australians in hospital with Covid-19 has reached the highest point of the entire pandemic, according to data from CovidLive.

On Monday, there were 5,429 Covid patients in hospital, surpassing the previous record of 5,390 set in late January.

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Guardian Essential poll: 40% of voters say Labor doing poor job tackling surging cost of living

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Half of voters surveyed say they can afford household bills but struggle to find anything extra or report feeling under financial pressure

Just one-quarter of voters think Labor is doing a good job of handling surging cost of living pressures, the latest Guardian Essential poll suggests, while a majority of respondents believe the Albanese government can influence the direction of inflation and interest rates.

The results from the latest survey of 1,082 respondents comes ahead of Wednesday’s inflation data which is expected to show consumer prices are running at their highest level since the 1990s.

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Gordon Copeland’s friend says he feared police on night of NSW drowning

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Jabour Clarke, 21, tells family during inquest he is ‘sorry’ and says he thought Copeland had been arrested or gotten away

A friend of a Gomeroi man who drowned in a Moree river has told the man’s family at an inquest he is “very sorry” for failing to tell authorities the deceased man, Gordon Copeland, was with him on the night he died, and that at the time he was scared of the police.

Copeland, a 22-year-old father of three, drowned in the Gwydir River in the early hours of 10 July 2021. The NSW coroner is examining the death, and counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer, told the inquest Copeland went into the water after police followed the vehicle in which he was a passenger, mistakenly thinking it was stolen.

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Evidence of Afghan witnesses against Ben Roberts-Smith ‘hardly neutral’, lawyer tells court

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Lawyers for Ben Roberts-Smith urge court to disregard evidence of Afghan witnesses, saying the men were prejudiced against Australian soldiers

Lawyers for Ben Roberts-Smith have urged the court hearing a defamation trial to reject the testimony of three Afghan men who gave evidence against the Australian soldier in his defamation trial, saying they regarded foreign troops as “infidels” and gave “inconsistent and contradictory” evidence.

“To say they are credible is incredible,” Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Arthur Moses SC, told the federal court in closing submissions in the former soldier’s long-running defamation action.

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Aged care sector warns ADF assistance not enough to address ‘stark’ staff shortages

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Unions and providers welcome one-month extension of workforce support but say tens of thousands of aged care workers unavailable

The aged care sector has warned that a pledge of additional military assistance will not be enough to solve the “stark” staff shortages linked to the current Covid-19 wave, which has seen the number of active outbreaks and the weekly death toll nearly double in a single month.

The federal government announced overnight it would extend Australian defence force support for aged care from its previous August endpoint until the end of September, plus boost the available military workforce by more than 200 personnel to help the sector cope with the current Omicron wave.

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Woman with disability felt ‘blamed’ after reporting sexual assault to Queensland police, inquiry hears

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Inquiry into QPS responses to domestic violence also hears police failed to assist in instances of elder abuse

A woman with an intellectual disability experienced “extreme mental health concerns” after reporting her sexual assault to Queensland police, who made her feel “blamed” and “judged”, an inquiry has heard.

Social worker Jacelyn Parsons said officers made no additional effort to support the woman or adapt their communication style after she disclosed her disability.

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Key documents relating to John Barilaro’s appointment to a New York trade role to be released

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The opposition had successfully moved to recall the upper house over the delayed release of documents

Key documents relating to the appointment of former New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro to a New York trade role will be released as the government scrambles to head off a recalling of parliament.

The opposition moved to recall the upper house for a Friday sitting over the delayed release of documents requested by an inquiry into the appointment, before the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade agreed to hand some over on Monday afternoon.

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Executed Myanmar activist visited Australia in 2012 to complete a political advisers’ course

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Phyo Zeya Thaw met then prime minister Julia Gillard when he was brought to Australia by AusAid

Phyo Zeya Thaw hadn’t been out of jail long when he came to Australia to do a political advisers’ course 10 years ago.

The Myanmar hip-hop artist turned politician – who eventually turned hip-hop artist again – was one of four people executed by the military junta following accusations of terror acts that many considered unfounded.

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Drew Pavlou says he is victim of ‘orchestrated campaign’ after arrest over false ‘bomb threat’

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Human rights leaders report receiving emails from account purporting to be from Pavlou in recent days after campaigner’s arrest in London

Australian activist Drew Pavlou has said he was the victim of an “orchestrated campaign” before his arrest over a false “bomb threat” after it emerged that human rights leaders and politicians have been receiving emails from an account purporting to be him in recent days.

Pavlou was arrested after a “small peaceful human rights protest” outside the Chinese embassy in London, where he intended to glue his hand to the outside of the embassy building.

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