Category Archives: Australia news

Australia news live: Erin Patterson’s daughter says her mother was a ‘very good cook’; PM’s department boss quits

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Erin Patterson’s daughter’s pre-recorded video evidence is being played to the jury in Patterson’s triple murder trial. Follow today’s news live

‘I want to harness all the talent in my team’

“We do need to reflect a modern Liberal party,” Sussan Ley says. She is speaking on Sunrise before the Liberals’ party room meeting on Tuesday, when they will select a new leader:

It’s about making sure that I am listening to my colleagues and … demonstrate to them we want a strong approach that includes everyone. I want to harness all of the talent in my team, take it forward under my leadership and meet the Australian people where they are because, clearly we didn’t do that at the last election. But we do need to reflect a modern Liberal party, meeting modern Australians in every single walk of life across the country.

On the weekend, we suffered a significant election defeat and since then, I have been having many conversations with my colleagues, members of the community, with members of the party, indeed the Coalition, with everyday Australians. I have listened. We got it wrong. We need to do things differently, going forward, and we do need a fresh approach. So, on Tuesday morning when the Liberal party room meets in Canberra, I will be putting myself forward for the position of leader of the federal party.

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Archibald prize 2025: Julie Fragar wins for portrait of artist Justene Williams

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Decision announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where all finalists will be exhibited to the public from Saturday

Julie Fragar has won the 2025 Archibald prize for her portrait of her fellow artist Justene Williams.

Announced as the winner of the $100,000 prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Friday, the winning work was selected unanimously by the judges from 904 entries and 57 finalists.Fragar is just the 13th woman to win the prize in its 104-year history.

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Helmeted honeyeaters return to Cardinia in Victoria for first time since 1983’s Ash Wednesday bushfires

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Healesville sanctuary releases 21 critically endangered birds in hopes a new wild population will thrive

For the first time in 42 years, critically endangered helmeted honeyeaters have returned to Cardinia in south-east Victoria, where they were found until the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983.

Helmeted honeyeaters are charismatic, energetic and curious, according to Dr Kim Miller, the manager of threatened species at Healesville sanctuary.

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Sarah Witty v Adam Bandt: how an unlikely Labor champion took down a Greens giant

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Melbourne was barely on the ALP’s radar as a seat it could win – but a sparsely funded campaign proved powerful

Labor could hardly be considered a metaphorical David in most federal election contests. But in the progressive seat of Melbourne, where the now-beaten Greens leader Adam Bandt had reigned for 15 years, there are similarities to the oft-told biblical story.

On 28 March, when Anthony Albanese called an election date for May, Melbourne appeared on no one’s list as a battle to watch.

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Australian Catholics welcome ‘approachable’ new pope in hope he will pursue peace

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Leo XIV is a fan of Tim Tams but not Vegemite, one church leader says, and is ‘humble’ and ‘gentle’

Australian Catholics and politicians have embraced the appointment of the new pope, Leo XIV, with many hoping he will continue his predecessor’s emphasis on peace and social justice.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, offered Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost – now known as Pope Leo XIV – heartfelt congratulations on behalf of the Roman Catholic church in Australia.

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Adam Bandt concedes defeat in seat of Melbourne as Greens leadership talks loom

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Greens leader uses concession speech to urge media to treat climate crisis ‘as if our country is being invaded’

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has conceded defeat in his electorate of Melbourne, saying he “fell just short” of holding the seat.

“A short time ago I called the Labor candidate for Melbourne, Sarah Witty, to concede, to congratulate her and to wish her all the best as the next member for Melbourne,” Bandt said in a statement.

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‘Astonishing journeys’: online tool tracking migratory animals highlights challenge of protecting them

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The University of Queensland system is intended to give policymakers idea of how species traverse the oceans and what it will take to save them

Off the east coast of Florida, female loggerhead turtles swim more than 1,000km north, hugging the edge of the continental shelf to get to feeding grounds.

Humpback whales move through Moreton Bay off the Brisbane coast in Australia, on their way to feed around the Balleny Islands more than 4,000km away off the Antarctic coastline, where wandering albatross circle above, travelling 1,000km a day.

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Security guard in charge of mall’s CCTV was ‘not getting better’ at her job in lead-up to attack, Bondi stabbing inquest hears

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At the moment Joel Cauchi started his killing spree, the CCTV control room monitoring 700 cameras was unstaffed, coroner was told

Concerns had been raised about the competency of the security guard whose job it was to monitor CCTV footage the day Joel Cauchi murdered six people inside a Bondi shopping centre, an inquest has heard.

The court heard that after the woman had received additional training in the weeks leading up to the attack, there was a note about her performance stating she was “not getting better”.

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Australia news live: Rudd criticises Trump’s proposed ‘tax on Bluey’; Faruqi refuses to concede Bandt will lose Melbourne

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Australia’s ambassador to the US has taken aim at the proposal to put tariffs on screen productions. Follow today’s news live

Ben Raue’s predictions for Menzies, Bullwinkel and Bradfield

Analyst Ben Raue also predicted that Labor’s Gabriel Ng lead by 1,145 votes in Menzies, Victoria, will “grow slightly”.

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Three children dead after suspicious fire in Toowoomba home

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A nine-year-old boy is believed to have died in the fire while girls aged four and seven died later in hospital from critical burns

Two young children have died in hospital after a ferocious fire at a family home, taking the death toll to three.

The house in suburban Harristown in Toowoomba, about 130km west of Brisbane in the Darling Downs region, went up in flames in the early hours of Wednesday.

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RecipeTin Eats’ Nagi Maehashi beats Brooke Bellamy at publishing industry awards amid plagiarism allegations

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Maehashi beat five finalists to take out prestigious prize after her second cookbook broke Australian records for first-week nonfiction title sales

Recipe book writer Nagi Maehashi has beaten cupcake queen Brooke Bellamy at the publishing industry’s annual awards, as Maehashi and other authors accuse Bellamy of plagiarism.

Maehashi won the illustrated book of the year a second time at the Australian book industry awards night in Melbourne on Wednesday for her most recent book, RecipeTin Eats: Tonight.

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PM launches attack on Max Chandler-Mather as Greens leader Adam Bandt projected to lose seat

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Anthony Albanese says former Greens MP ‘should have a look at the way that he conducted himself in question time’

Anthony Albanese has labelled Max Chandler-Mather a hypocrite who should look in the mirror after the former Greens MP described workplace culture in parliament as “bloody awful”.

The prime minister, who clashed with Chandler-Mather on a number of occasions during question time, said the 33-year-old who lost his Brisbane seat on Saturday needed a “mirror and a reflection on why he’s no longer in parliament”.

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Australia news live: federal election 2025 results; AEC and Senate vote count continues today – latest update

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Liberal candidate says he is ‘proud’ to represent electorate after being ‘written off’ three years ago. Follow today’s live news and reaction to the 2025 Australian federal election results

Max Chandler-Mathers on housing: Labor refused to negotiate then told media the Greens were blocking their bills

Asked about criticism that the Greens slowed down progress on housing on Triple J Hack, Max Chandler-Mather said Anthony Albanese was “basically saying that, and it just wasn’t true, but then the media repeated as fact”.

It was odd for me, I have to say, because I would be sitting in a negotiating room with the prime minister or with the housing minister, and we’d be privately saying we’re willing to give up everything on our side of negotiations if you just build a bit more public housing. And then they say, ‘Nah, no way, we’re not giving you a thing’. And then they go out into the media and say, ‘The Greens are blocking housing’.

In the house, a lot of those things didn’t get across that you were hoping or that you were promising, the rent freezes, the rent caps, the negative gearing changes, the doubling of capital gains tax … That stuff didn’t get across the line, but Labor’s housing policies still did.

I’ll be honest, one of the things I’m quite happy about at the moment is I don’t have to spend more time in the House of Representatives, because, like, basically every time I stood up, I got screamed and yelled at. In terms of a workplace, it was bloody awful, and frankly, a lot of the times miserable.

The only reason I kept going back because it felt like we were one of the few voices fighting for millions of people who feel really let down by this political system …

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Erin Patterson trial live: no record of cancer diagnosis for Erin Patterson on state’s register, health official says

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Australian woman has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder relating to a lunch she served at her Leongatha home in 2023. Follow live updates

Don and Gail had dined at Erin’s before, court hears

Anna Terrington also recalls a lunch that her parents, Don and Gail, had at Erin’s house in 2023 – before the fateful mushroom meal.

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Karen Webb to resign after three years as NSW police commissioner

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State’s top cop – who was first woman to hold position in NSW history – expected to step down on 30 September

New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb will resign after three years in the role.

The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, told NSW parliament on Wednesday that Webb had recently indicated she would retire by the end of the year and will leave the job on 30 September.

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After braving the wilderness for 500 days, Valerie is heavier than ever. Has someone been feeding the mini dachshund?

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Kangaroo Island mayor also notes a silky coat on the dog, while Kangala Wildlife Rescue says ‘possums or cats out there were grooming her’

As Valerie is reunited with her owners, mystery remains over how the miniature dachshund braved more than 500 days in Kangaroo Island’s rugged wilderness only to emerge healthy, happy – and larger than before.

Valerie captured the world’s attention when she was spotted 529 days after going missing on the South Australian island, with people worldwide avidly following the story of her capture.

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Too close to call: follow the federal election results in the undecided seats here

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Things are looking rocky in Bullwinkel for Labor but it’s likely the party will hold Richmond against the Greens

Election night ended with at least 16 seats too close to call. Here you can see a list of those which were, as of Wednesday morning, still undecided and our reasons for holding off from making predictions about who will win them.

We’re going to leave the electorates on this list even after predictions have been made so if something happens you won’t miss it.

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‘A very real possibility of being detained’: LGBTQ+ Australians cancel travel to US for World Pride

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Mik Bartels is among those fearful of Trump’s America, partly because their research includes 20 words on US government’s list of banned terms

Queer Australians are axing travel plans to Washington DC’s World Pride festival, as Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting LGBTQ+ rights lead to fears of discrimination at the US border and potential attacks.

People skipping the international event join other Australians and travellers from around the world who are avoiding the US after Trump’s inauguration and a string of controversial policies enacted in the early months of his second term as president.

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Erin Patterson trial live: medical staff reveal differing severities of illness of each guest at fateful mushroom lunch

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Australian woman has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder relating to a lunch she served at her Leongatha home in 2023. Follow live updates

Ian Wilkinson says late wife Heather ‘fairly excited’ about lunch

The examination now turns to the invite for the mushroom lunch.

There was no reason for the lunch.... We were very happy to be invited. It seemed like maybe our relationship with Erin was going to improve.

Just seemed like a normal person to me... when we met, seemed quite friendly. We never had arguments or disputes.

She just seemed like an ordinary person.

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