Category Archives: Australia news

International doctors unable to work in Australia due to ‘broken system’, experts say

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Health leaders call for streamlining of complex registration process as overseas-trained doctors look elsewhere for work

Hundreds of foreign-trained doctors living in Australia have been unable to work due to what critics say is a “broken system”, amid calls for the process to be improved to help address chronic workforce shortages in the health sector.

The health minister, Mark Butler, had flagged his concerns about the registration for international medical graduates (IMGs), saying he has sought advice about how to speed up registration for doctors already in the country.

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Dfat concerned about ability to help Australians overseas amid international crises, documents show

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Department’s incoming brief to Penny Wong warns of consular and passport issues as well as citizens detained in Syria

The incoming brief for the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong contained the stark admission that cascading international crises including Afghanistan and Ukraine “have strained our ability to provide a high-level consular service to Australians overseas”.

The heavily redacted document, given to the incoming minister as part of a briefing to help them get across Australia’s foreign affairs portfolio and obtained by Guardian Australia under FOI laws, warned the “need for global collaboration and solutions is more acute than ever”.

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A 120km drive to job agency: confusion reigns over Australia’s jobseeker requirements, union says

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Australian Unemployed Workers Union survey reveals challenges for those seeking work, from lack of information to unreasonable demands

Jobseekers have reported broad confusion about the new Workforce Australia system – including among the employment consultants tasked with running it – with some asked to drive more than 120km to job agency appointments.

Hundreds of respondents to a survey conducted by the Australian Unemployed Workers Union (AUWU) this month listed issues they’d faced during the transition to the $1.5bn-a-year scheme, which replaced Jobactive at the start of the month.

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Australian activist Drew Pavlou arrested in London but denies sending Chinese embassy bomb threat

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Pavlou says the emailed threat was intended to frame him after he staged a peaceful protest carrying a Uyghur flag outside the embassy

Australian activist Drew Pavlou has been arrested in the UK over a false “bomb threat” delivered to the Chinese embassy in London that he claims came from a fake email address designed to frame him.

Pavlou said the “absurd” email claimed he would blow up the embassy over Beijing’s oppression of its Uyghur Muslim minority, but that it was confected by the embassy in order to have him arrested.

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Coalition ‘subverted democracy’ with election-day statement on asylum boat, Labor says

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Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil says former government’s pressuring of public servants to reveal boat arrival was ‘unprecedented’

The former Morrison government subverted Australia’s democracy, undermined the public service and endangered members of the defence force when it pressured public servants to reveal details of an asylum seeker boat on election day, home affairs minister Clare O’Neil has said, lambasting the former government for its “disgraceful” actions.

O’Neil said those members of the government involved should “hang their heads in shame” and apologise for pressuring public servants and defence officials to issue the statement over the intercepted boat – an occurrence that was then used as a final-hours campaign tool.

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Peter Bol chases historic gold as first Australian to run in 800m worlds final

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  • Tokyo Olympics hero scrapes into 800m final by 0.09 seconds
  • Bol is the first Australian to reach a world championship 800m final

A model of consistency and self-belief, Peter Bol looks every chance to win Australia’s first-ever 800 metre world championships medal in Eugene. But by his own admission, Bol was lucky to get through to the title race after finishing third and outside the automatic qualifying spots in the opening semi-final.

But having dodged a bullet and advanced as the second non-automatic qualifier by just 0.09 seconds, Bol has again made history, becoming the first Australian man or woman to ever reach a world championships 800m final.

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Javelin star Kelsey-Lee Barber joins Cathy Freeman in history with world title

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  • 66.91m throw makes Barber first woman to defend javelin world title
  • Barber joins Cathy Freeman as only Australians to defend a worlds title

Javelin superstar Kelsey-Lee Barber has joined the great Cathy Freeman as the only Australians to successfully defend a world athletics title.

Barber further embellished her reputation as a supreme big-event competitor at Hayward Field on Friday evening with a huge third-round throw of 66.91 metres.

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Australia records 102 Covid deaths – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

New South Wales has reported similarly high numbers, with 41 deaths and 14,953 new cases in the 24-hours to 4pm yesterday.

There are 2,176 people with Covid-19 in hospital, and 59 in intensive care. Just over 68% of people have received their third shot, despite a fourth booster now being available.

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‘Be patient, kind and safe’: Splendour in the Grass revellers make most of muddy conditions

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The Byron Bay event kicked off on Saturday after festival goers endured flooded campsites, long queues and the cancellation of the first day’s programming

Revellers at Splendour in the Grass have tried to make the most of the muddy situation, but long queues and “a lack of communication” have left some running low on patience.

Organisers of Australia’s biggest music festival urged fans to turn up to the event on Saturday, after performances were cancelled on Friday.

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‘Covid is not going to go away’: Australia will require public health measures for foreseeable future, say experts

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Vaccine inequity and emerging variants mean the future of the pandemic is increasingly uncertain, researchers say

In May 2021, Australia’s chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, described how Covid vaccines were our “ticket out of the pandemic”. Vaccination, he said, would give Australians “a life with more certainty”.

More than one year later, Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination rate is among the highest in the world.

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Woman who died sleeping rough in Adelaide parklands not found for three weeks

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Services report 279 ‘actively homeless’ people in SA as ministers meet to address national housing crisis

The body of a woman who died while sleeping rough in the Adelaide parklands was not found for three weeks.

The 48-year-old woman, discovered by a man who knew her, was found in a tent in the eastern end of the parklands along South Terrace at 2pm on 22 May.

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Australian restaurants on a knife edge as inflation bites and food costs soar

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Hospitality businesses adapt menus and cut staff hours amid cost-of-living pressures

Restaurants and cafes are constantly adapting their menus to try to mitigate the rising cost of produce and cutting staff hours, as inflation hits profit margins in the hospitality sector.

Jackie Middleton, who co-owns Earl Canteen, a small sandwich chain in Melbourne, and Dame, a high-end cafe on Collins Street, says not a single day goes by when she doesn’t get an email saying the price of a product has increased.

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Indigenous death in NSW jail from ear infection ‘the result of systemic failures’: coroner

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Douglas ‘Mootijah’ Shillingsworth’s ear problems would have been picked up by proper procedures, coroner Joan Baptie finds

The death of an Aboriginal man from an ear infection while in custody was preventable and due to failures in the New South Wales justice system, a coroner has found.

Douglas “Mootijah” Shillingsworth, a Budjiti and Murrawarri man, died of a middle ear infection, known as otitis media, at the age of 44 on 15 February 2018 while incarcerated at the Silverwater prison in Sydney.

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One Nation senators and David Pocock granted second adviser amid backlash over crossbench staff cuts

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More senators and MPs due to meet Anthony Albanese next week after crossbenchers warned cuts could slow Labor’s legislative agenda

One Nation senators and independent David Pocock have been granted an extra adviser each, as the Albanese government softens cuts to crossbench staff.

But the decision to give Pauline Hanson, Malcolm Roberts and Pocock six staff each instead of the slated five is unlikely to stem demands from independent MPs in the lower house that they need more staff too.

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NT minister says deaths of Indigenous woman and baby should have been ‘all over the news’

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Deaths prompt renewed calls for attention on First Nations domestic violence victims and needs-based funding

The shooting of an Indigenous woman and her infant child should have been “all over the news”, the Northern Territory’s police minister has said, in a push for needs-based domestic violence prevention funding in the region.

The bodies of a 41-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman and a baby were found at an outstation 25km north of Alice Springs on Sunday, prompting renewed calls for more attention on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims of domestic violence.

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Government establishes new measures at airports to stop FMD; 63 Covid deaths – as it happened

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US ambassador arrives in Australia

The new US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, has arrived this morning and told the media she feels “lucky … to serve here and to live here.”

There’s a big agenda and I can’t wait to get started. Personally this means a great deal to me. My my husband is here with me. We first came to Australia on our honeymoon 36 years ago, almost exactly, because three days ago was our anniversary. Then we are were fortunate to come back with our children when we were in Japan. So we met so many wonderful people and I can’t believe that I’m lucky enough to get a chance to serve here and to live here and get to know even more people.

The weather and staff shortages were all worse than expected.

We are doing the best we can – the show will go on rain, hail or shine.

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‘Disgraceful’: report reveals Morrison government pressured border force to promote election day boat arrival

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Labor says action by former government ‘sabotaged’ protocols for political gain and was ‘without precedent’ in Australian history

Morrison government staff pressured the Australian Border Force to draft and issue a statement about an asylum seeker boat intercepted on election day before the operation had finished, a damning departmental report has found.

Labor’s home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, released the report on Friday and accused the former Coalition government of having “sabotaged the protocols that protect Operation Sovereign Borders for political gain” in an incident “without precedent”.

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Woman jailed for attempting to suffocate father in Queensland aged care home

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Rebecca Burden was visiting her brain-injured dad for the first time in six months when she says he asked her to kill him

A Brisbane woman has been jailed for at least 10 months after admitting a lapse of judgment when she tried to suffocate her brain-injured father.

Rebecca Louise Burden was visiting 68-year-old Steven Burden for the first time she was permitted after Covid-19 restrictions lifted at his aged care home when she says he asked her to kill him.

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Federal government under pressure to increase EV uptake after ACT announces petrol car ban

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Electric vehicle advocates and auto industry say Australia needs nationally mandated fuel efficiency standards

The federal government is under pressure to act to increase the uptake of electric vehicles after the Australian Capital Territory became the first state or territory to announce an end to the sale of petrol cars.

The Zero Emission Vehicle strategy was announced by the ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr, on Tuesday and commits the territory to phasing out internal combustion engines by 2035. This means no new petrol engine vehicles could be sold in the territory past that date.

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Jobseeker asked to choose between work and job agency appointments under Workforce Australia system

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Multiple complaints of baffling and unrealistic requirements have been reported as being set by employment agencies under the new program

To go to work, or to attend an appointment to “find” work – that’s the question one worker is asking himself under the federal government’s new Workforce Australia employment services system.

The 62-year-old is the latest jobseeker in the new $1.3bn-a-year Workforce Australia program to complain about the baffling mutual obligations he must fulfil.

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