Category Archives: Australia news

Queensland commits to ban charging sexual assault victims without Medicare for examination

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Announcement follows Guardian Australia report on calls to end practice, victim’s $800 bill

Queensland Health has pledged not to charge sexual assault victims without access to Medicare for rape kits and will review its policies for other medical costs, after the findings of a comprehensive review.

The announcement comes after Guardian Australia reported on Thursday that one woman who was ineligible for Medicare was billed $800 for pathology testing this year after a sexual assault.

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Australia could see a solar cell ‘renaissance’ if global supply chain is diversified

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International Energy Agency report finds China controls the bulk of world’s PV manufacturing

Australia could start a solar manufacturing “renaissance” and have a rare opportunity to accelerate its transition to renewable energy if it heeds a call by the International Energy Agency to diversify the world’s solar cell supply chain.

A special report by the agency released on Friday found China controls over 80% of parts of the global photovoltaic (PV) solar supply chain, with one out of every seven panels produced worldwide being manufactured by a single factory.

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‘A bit of pub talk’: Scott Morrison denies push for job in rugby league

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Former PM says he didn’t tell powerbrokers he would like to join the Australian Rugby League Commission

The former prime minister Scott Morrison has denied making a bid to join the Australian Rugby League Commission, describing the reports as “a bit of pub talk”.

The Nine Network reported on Thursday that Morrison had spoken to “powerbrokers” in rugby league and made it “quite clear to them that he would like to be a part” of the commission, which runs the code, despite there not being a vacancy.

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‘Till next time’: Nick Kyrgios wishes Nadal well as focus turns to Wimbledon final

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  • Nadal recovering from abdominal strain that ended title hopes
  • Australian will contest maiden grand slam final on Sunday

Nick Kyrgios has wished Rafa Nadal well in his recovery from the injury that forced the Spaniard out of the Wimbledon semi-final and gifted the Australian a place in his first grand slam final.

Kyrgios was handed a walkover into Sunday’s final against either Novak Djokovic or Cam Norrie when Nadal, who played through an abdominal tear sustained during his quarter-final win against Taylor Fritz, admitted defeat and pulled out on Thursday.

Reuters and Australian Associated Press contributed to this report

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‘Far from adequate’: former Pacific leaders group urges Australia to increase 43% emissions cut

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Pacific Elders Voice also called for Australia to end gas and coal developments ahead of Pacific Islands Forum

Former Pacific leaders have called for “urgent actions” to reduce global carbon emissions, including a commitment to no new coal or gas projects as Anthony Albanese prepares to travel to Fiji for the most important diplomatic regional meeting in the Pacific.

A group of former leaders of Pacific island nations, called Pacific Elders Voice, have called for accelerated efforts to move beyond coal and gas, and for new finance to be made available for loss and damage caused by the climate crisis, in the foreword to a new report released today by the Australia-based Climate Council.

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EV incentives focused on urban centres leave rural Australians stranded with fossil fuels

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Regional residents at risk of being ‘last people in the world’ driving petrol cars due to misconception electric vehicle batteries lack range, study suggests

People living in regional areas are at risk of becoming the “last people in the world” left driving petrol cars because incentives for electric vehicles have been targeted towards city drivers.

Most EVs on the market are likely to have the battery range needed for those living long distances from urban centres, however Australian policy is currently geared only towards encouraging uptake among citydwellers, new research from the Australian National University has found.

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Reboot of Jenkins review into toxic parliamentary culture already begun, Katy Gallagher says

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Minister for women says mission to improve workplace conditions is urgent and will not ‘die a little slow death’

Minister for women, Katy Gallagher, says she will kickstart implementation of the Jenkins review in the opening fortnight of the new parliament, declaring the mission to eradicate toxic parliamentary staffing culture is not going to “die a little slow death”.

In her first interview as the new federal minister for women, Katy Gallaghersaid the Jenkins reboot had begun this week. She said Kerri Hartland, the independent chair of the Jenkins review implementation taskforce, had contacted MPs across the parliament to revive the process that went into hiatus because of the May election.

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José Ramos-Horta pleased ‘fairness prevailed’ in Bernard Collaery case

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Exclusive: Timor-Leste president welcomes decision to end prosecution of ‘good man’ who helped expose Australian bugging operation

Timor-Leste’s president, José Ramos-Horta, has welcomed the “wisdom and fairness” of the decision to end the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, saying the lawyer is a “good man” who represented the best of Australian ideals.

Collaery and his client, intelligence officer Witness K, are viewed as heroes in Timor-Leste for their role in exposing Australia’s 2004 operation to bug the nation’s government offices to gain the upper hand in oil and gas negotiations.

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Supermarkets and chemists limit tissue purchases as surge in winter illness hits supplies

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Cold and flu tablets and throat lozenges also in short supply as country battles rising influenza and Covid infections

Supermarkets and chemists are limiting purchases of facial tissues as stocks dwindle amid soaring influenza and Covid-19 infections.

Medications, including painkillers and cold and flu tablets, have also been stripped from shelves in some chemists along the east coast as Australia battles winter illness.

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Labor’s new ministerial code of conduct bans blind trusts like Christian Porter used

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Changes come after Labor criticised Porter for not declaring who contributed to fund he used to pay for ABC defamation case

Blind trusts of the kind Christian Porter used to partially pay for his defamation case against the ABC have been explicitly banned by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in a new code of conduct for his ministers.

While in opposition, Labor had attempted to have Porter, the former attorney general, disciplined for failing to declare who had contributed to the fund he used to pay for the ultimately aborted defamation court action he instigated against the ABC.

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Penny Wong to meet Chinese minister in sign of thawing relations between Australia and China

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Following days of speculation China’s foreign ministry confirmed the meeting after Wong signalled she was open to a direct conversation

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, will meet her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Bali on Friday in a direct conversation that is a further sign of thawing relations between Canberra and Beijing after a diplomatic deep freeze.

After days of speculation, China’s foreign ministry announced on Thursday night Canberra and Beijing’s foreign ministers would meet on the sidelines of the G20 in Indonesia for the first time since 2019. Friday’s meeting was later confirmed by Australian officials.

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Australia news live: fourth covid vaccine dose to be offered from 11 July; NSW rain and flood risk move north

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In his speech, Jason Clare also lamented the fact that although the target of 40% of people aged 25 to 34 having bachelor degrees had been achieved, a separate target for 20% of enrolments to be from people from low socioeconomic backgrounds had not.

Instead, it had “barely moved” from 15%, from when the target was set in 2008. Indigenous enrolment was less than 10%.

I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on your postcode, your parents, or the colour of your skin. None of us want that. But that’s where we are today. I am not naive, I know this is hard to shift.

And that, at its core, is what the Australian Universities accord will be about: a reset. And an opportunity to build a long-term plan for our universities, together. Drawing on the advice of the leadership in this room, your staff, unions, business, students, parents and all political parties.

Looking at everything from funding and access to affordability, transparency, regulation, employment conditions and also how universities and TAFEs and other higher education and vocational education providers and training institutions work together.

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Liberal minister signed off on alternative candidate to NY trade job later given to John Barilaro, documents reveal

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Briefing shows Stuart Ayres signed off on the appointment of businesswoman Jenny West to New York trade commissioner role in August 2021

The deputy Liberal party leader Stuart Ayres signed off on the appointment of public servant and businesswoman Jenny West to a New York trade commissioner job which was later given to the former New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro.

New documents released through parliament show that in August last year Ayres, the minister for jobs, investment, tourism and western Sydney, was sent a brief from Investment NSW, the department responsible for the appointments, confirming that “a full recruitment process” had decided on West as the “successful candidate”.

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More than 15m bees destroyed in NSW to contain deadly varroa mite parasite

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Hives along state’s central and mid-north coasts and in north-west destroyed as bee lockdown continues

More than 15 million bees have been euthanised across 31 infected premises in New South Wales as the fight to contain the varroa mite continues.

Bees from 1,533 hives have been destroyed between the NSW central and mid-north coasts, as well as at Narrabri in the state’s north-west, the state’s agriculture minister, Dugald Saunders, said. “It’s a significant number of bees,” he said.

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Social housing tenant forced to cook in living room amid Victoria’s ‘broken’ complaints system, report says

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Investigation recommends the state creates dedicated social housing ombudsman and makes law changes

A social housing tenant was left to cook in her living room while another was forced to shower at public facilities for months, an investigation into Victoria’s “broken” housing complaints system has found.

In a report tabled in parliament on Thursday morning, the state ombudsman, Deborah Glass, said the investigation had found a “broken complaint system”, prompting the need for a social housing ombudsman and changes to the law.

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Australian veteran Simon Clarke triumphs at the death in drama-strewn Tour de France stage

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  • Clarke left in tears after edging final sprint
  • Terrible day for other Australians Haig, O’Connor and Ewan

Australian cycling veteran Simon Clarke has earned a magnificent, last-ditch Tour de France triumph to crown 20 years of slog on Europe’s roads after a brutal, crash-strewn cobbled stage.

But while the 35-year-old Israel-Premier Tech rider was left in floods of joyous tears after edging a lung-bursting sprint to win the fifth stage in a photo-finish on Wednesday, it proved a calamitous day for Australia’s biggest hitters on the Tour.

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Morning mail: Boris Johnson refuses to quit, Kyrgios makes Wimbledon semi-finals, veggies to buy this month

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Thursday: Covid-19 led Australia to record 3,105 more deaths than expected in January and February. Plus: UK prime minister told to step down by his own ministers

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Good morning. A fourth Covid vaccine is to be made available to more Australians as it was revealed hospital admissions have reached their highest levels since early February. In the UK, Boris Johnson has been told by his own ministers to quit. And Nick Kyrgios is through to the semi-finals of Wimbledon.

Johnson’s woes have continued amid a string of resignations from his collapsing government and a series of senior Conservatives called for him to step down. But the PM is refusing to budge, even after a delegation of cabinet ministers met him at Downing Street to demand his resignation on a day of rapidly unfolding political drama. Follow all the latest developments as they happen here.

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More Australians to be eligible for fourth dose of Covid vaccine as Omicron infections rise

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Atagi will brief the health minister, Mark Butler, on Thursday after agreeing to recommend the expansion of Australia’s Covid vaccine program

A fourth Covid vaccine will be made available to more Australians as health authorities attempt to starve off further spread of the infectious virus which continues to place the health system under enormous pressure.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) met on Wednesday, and agreed to recommend the booster program be expanded. Nine newspapers reported a fourth vaccine will be made available to anyone aged over 30, with a special recommendation for those aged over 50 to take up the offer.

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Fears two monkeypox cases were transmitted locally and could mark spread of disease in Australia

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NSW has confirmed 11 cases and health authorities are urging people to be aware of symptoms

Monkeypox may be spreading in Australia after New South Wales found infections among the state’s 11 confirmed cases that could have been transmitted locally.

NSW Health says nine of the infections were probably acquired overseas but two may be local cases, which suggests community transmission could be occurring, especially among men who have sex with men.

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Penny Wong says she is open to meeting with Chinese counterpart at G20

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Foreign minister confirms Australia’s willingness to engage with China but insists ‘coercive’ trade sanctions must be scrapped

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has signalled she is open to meeting her Chinese counterpart at a looming meeting of G20 foreign ministers, but she has warned any diplomatic thaw will require the removal of Beijing’s “coercive” trade sanctions against a variety of exports.

Wong was asked during a visit to Singapore on Wednesday to disclose whether or not arrangements were now in place for a conversation at the G20 meeting in Indonesia later this week – and if so, what her message would be to China’s Wang Yi.

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