Category Archives: Australia news

‘Foolish’ CSIRO job cuts will mean Australia unable to provide climate projections to global reports, scientists warn

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Exclusive: Science agency is planning to sack a third of the team working on the national climate model, sources say

Job cuts at the national science agency mean Australia will no longer be able to submit climate projections to form part of global reports and will have significantly reduced ability to forecast future damage to the country, leading researchers have warned.

Multiple sources told Guardian Australia that CSIRO planned to sack a third of the team working on the national climate model that provides projections relied on by governments, councils, industry and farmers as they plan for the future.

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Pocock urges CGT changes as Albanese laughs off AI meme campaign

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Independent senator warns budget reform could drive tech investment offshore, as PM thanks startups for ‘very flattering’ images

Anthony Albanese has laughed off an AI-generated meme campaign against capital gains tax changes from startup founders, thanking them for “very flattering” doctored photos of him working in their businesses.

But independent politicians representing some of Australia’s startup hotspots have raised alarm over the proposed increase to capital gains tax, warning the tax changes could see innovative companies and tech firms move overseas to chase higher rewards.

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Australian medical college leader suspended from position over alleged health and safety breach

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Dr Sharmila Chandran suspended until 20 September as Royal Australasian College of Physicians agrees to work with regulator to meet its obligations

The charities regulator has suspended the president-elect of one of Australia’s oldest medical colleges for allegedly contravening a direction from the NSW work health and safety watchdog.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) on Monday issued a notice suspending Dr Sharmila Chandran as a responsible person of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which is a registered charity, until 20 September.

SafeWork NSW advised that Chandran’s alleged failure to comply with a directive not to contact RACP staff was exposing them to “immediate and serious risks” to their psychological health and safety, the ACNC said in a public statement.

The intervention follows months of conflict within the RACP’s board, which culminated in an extraordinary general meeting last month to which police were called.

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Signs of ‘feeding’ ritual at dingo burial site shed new light on bond between First Nations people and canines

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Never documented archaeologically before, evidence points to First Nations people caring for and nursing the animal

The discovery of a millennium-old dingo burial site in western New South Wales, including evidence of a “feeding” ritual never before documented archaeologically, has shed new light on the longstanding relationship between the canines and First Nations people.

The dingo was buried along the Baaka, or Darling River, in Kinchega national park near the Menindee Lakes.

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Man charged with three counts of DV murder after woman and children found dead inside Sydney home

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NSW police called to home in Campbelltown where they arrested a man, aged 47

A man has been charged with murder after the bodies of a woman and two children were found inside a Sydney home.

Officers attended the home in Campbelltown, in the city’s south-west, on Monday night “following a call from the home to triple zero” at about 7.50pm, New South Wales police said.

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Romaine calm: live frog found in discount supermarket lettuce bag

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‘Look, if I was in a French supermarket, I probably would have got a two for one deal on that one,’ woman in WA told national TV

When a group of housemates in Western Australia bought a pair of lettuces in a sealed plastic bag – reduced for quick sale to $1.15 – they got two other things for which they could not have bargained. One was a live frog reckoned to be the size of a man’s palm. The other, a slot on national television.

But despite describing it as “the most random thing” they had encountered upon opening a packet of leafy greens from the supermarket, Laura Jones and Billie Le Pine fronted their interview on ABC news breakfast with a series or ready made one liners.

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Pianist Jayson Gillham says he never considered apologising for Gaza comments, trial hears

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Federal court case begins for classical pianist who alleges Melbourne Symphony Orchestra unlawfully discriminated due to his views

A classical pianist who alleges the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra unlawfully discriminated against him because of his views on Israeli forces killing Palestinian journalists says he did not consider apologising for making the statement at the centre of the case.

Pianist Jayson Gillham is suing the MSO over a cancelled Melbourne concert he was contracted to perform on 15 August 2024, a cancellation which he claims was an attempt to silence him over his stance on the Gaza conflict.

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Tech founders use AI-generated images to poke fun at Anthony Albanese in protest against tax changes

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‘He’s having a great time with his new 47% equity,’ one entrepreneur jokes, warning that some startups may leave Australia behind

Tech entrepreneurs have mocked the government’s capital gains tax changes by posting AI-generated photos of Anthony Albanese as their “new founder” and warning that increased taxes could push people away from working for new businesses or send startups overseas.

Startups and entrepreneurs may yet receive a carve-out in the federal government’s planned changes to the CGT discount, with the prime minister saying he wanted to support innovation and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, revealing that consultation was continuing with the sector.

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‘Fiercely loyal, endlessly generous’ father named as victim of Rottnest Island shark attack

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Steven Mattaboni, 38, was a ‘one-of-a-kind gentleman’ and devoted parent to two young daughters, his wife Shirene says

A father of two young daughters, husband and avid fisher has been identified as the victim of a fatal shark attack at Rottnest Island in Western Australia.

Steven Mattaboni, 38, a surveyor from Perth, was in the water at Horseshoe Reef about 9.55am on Saturday when he was believed to have been bitten by a shark, police said.

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Australia news live: Albanese congratulates Delta Goodrem on Eurovision fourth-place finish; Queensland Labor set to win Stafford byelection

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Follow the day’s news live

Jim Chalmers says the opposition’s policy to index tax brackets would cost the budget a quarter of a trillion dollars over ten years, while claiming that the government is returning bracket creep to taxpayers.

It’s a slightly tricky position, as Angus Taylor argues that Labor is “betraying” itself because the high figure is actually how much the government is keeping and spending through bracket creep ever year.

This is a Government that returns bracket creep when it is responsible to do that.

That [policy] would cost tens of billions of dollars in extra debt interest, because he’s got these uncosted, unfunded, tax announcements that he [Taylor] made in his Budget reply, which was all about trying to stave off One Nation.”

What Angus Taylor is proposing to do is to pump the most money into the economy when inflation is already at its highest.

“This betrays the fact that the government plans to raise income tax rates to the tune of $35 billion This says more about their plan than our plan ...

If Labor’s saying that they plan to raise income taxes to the tune of $250 billion in the next 10 years ... [if] that is their tax hike, that’s their planned income tax increases.”

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Teenager Isla Bell’s body was found in a Melbourne tip 18 months ago. Today friends and family demanded ‘justice’

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Supporters at the Victorian state library protested against prosecutors dropping a manslaughter charge against the man accused of killing her

Isla Bell, the 19-year-old whose body was found in a Melbourne tip 18 months ago, has been remembered as a loving, courageous and open-hearted young woman with a green thumb and an “exquisitely beautiful soul”.

Friends, family and supporters gathered outside the Victorian state library on Saturday to honour the teenager and protest against prosecutors dropping a manslaughter charge against the man who had been accused of killing her.

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LNP falls ‘agonisingly short’ in Stafford byelection as Labor suffers swing against it

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Opposition expected to retain the northern Brisbane seat, with Luke Richmond ahead of Fiona Hammond by more than 700 votes

Queensland opposition leader Steven Miles says he has caucus support to remain Labor leader “right now”, after the party suffered a swing against it at a byelection in the north of Brisbane.

Labor is expected to retain the northern Brisbane seat of Stafford, but recorded an 8% swing against it on primary votes. Candidate Luke Richmond was ahead of the Liberal National party candidate, Fiona Hammond, by 768 votes as of Sunday morning, with counting expected to continue later in the day.

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POV: you’re Jim Chalmers using social media to sell the most ambitious budget of your life

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Politicians still care about traditional media, but winning over people spending more of their lives online is the challenge for modern MPs

He’s up before sunrise, pounding the pavement in a cap and running shorts. He’s still up late into the night, having slipped into a comfortable sweater while he checks figures in a darkened office by lamplight, fuelled by sugar-free Red Bull.

It’s “decision week”, Jim Chalmers declares of the annual federal budget in a video that pinged around political group chats this week. The treasurer was keen to take people behind the scenes on social media.

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From drab partitions to haute couture host: how a Sydney civic masterpiece was rescued

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Redevelopment of the former Department of Lands building on Sydney’s Bridge Street wins National Trust heritage award

It was once a grand old sandstone masterpiece, where returned soldiers would cram into marble corridors to anxiously await lottery draws that could change their lives.

Then the 20th century happened.

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Australia news live: Delta Goodrem hits the stage in Eurovision semi; Angus Taylor accused of ‘dog whistle’ budget reply

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Australian pop star performs song Eclipse in second semi-final before Sunday’s final. Follow today’s news live

Advocates for migrants last night accused Angus Taylor of using his budget reply speech to “chase votes with dog whistles, fear and division”.

Taylor claimed that migrants were coming to Australia and claiming benefits before they were becoming citizens, a situation which he said Australians did not accept.

The Coalition’s dangerous decision to return to its harmful, failed refugee policies of the past shows what a mess they are in. They have no new policy ideas. Temporary protection visas have harmed countless people and kept many families apart for over a decade. So many are still trying to recover.

Taylor’s comments tonight are inflammatory and desperate. The fact that he feels the need to dog-whistle about mass deportations of so-called ‘overstayers’, many of whom are actually trapped in a massively blown-out court and tribunal system created through years of Coalition underfunding, shows they are far more interested in stoking fear than delivering serious policy solutions.

The language in tonight’s address misleads the nation by claiming that migrants are arriving and immediately accessing welfare payments, which is a blatant lie. In reality most of the restrictions he’s talking about already exist and there are lengthy wait periods for welfare payments.

The Coalition knows all this and is deliberately misleading Australians about how the welfare system already operates in order to whip up fear and division.

If I may answer - it will be below 200,000. There’s no doubt about that.

And then the right mix will depend on the circumstances of the time. What is clear, what is clear, is that the number of students in this country has been at record levels.

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Prominent Australian academic denies links to powerful Iranian politician

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Prof Abbas Rajabifard of the University of Melbourne says he was listed as a co-author of research with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator in recent peace talks, without his knowledge

A University of Melbourne academic has denied collaborating on research with the speaker of Iran’s parliament – who has been leading Tehran’s peace negotiations with the US – saying he was named as an author on a journal article without his knowledge.

On Monday Guardian Australia revealed that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator, had built extensive ties to Australia over the past decade, including links to a University of Melbourne engineering research centre.

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NDIS cuts could leave some participants with a funding gap. How will the changes affect you?

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Proposals also grant the health minister power to change disability support rules without state or territory approval. Here’s what you need to know

Funding for some services within the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be slashed – even in cases where participants could be left with a funding gap – as part of a sweeping proposal to drastically curb the scheme’s annual growth.

The proposed changes, revealed on Thursday, will also grant the health minister, Mark Butler, god-like powers to reduce overall funding for support categories, determine pricing guides and caps for services and support, and the ability to change NDIS rules without state and territory approval for the first 12 months.

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Court rules Coles misled shoppers with its ‘Down Down’ discount campaign

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Landmark finding against supermarket giant comes after competition watchdog argued that markdowns did not represent genuine savings

Coles misled Australian shoppers by promoting fake “Down Down” discounts on everyday grocery products, the federal court has ruled in a landmark decision for the supermarket industry.

Justice Michael O’Bryan handed down his judgment on Thursday, delivering a significant blow to Australia’s second-largest supermarket chain, which had argued that the discounts represented genuine savings during a period of high inflation.

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Labor accused of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ for axing $760m research program to fund other science measures

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Researchers say budget decision to cut commercialisation program to fund the CSIRO and other science initiatives undermines the government’s own priorities

The federal government has been accused of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” over the budget axing of a $760m research commercialisation program in order to fund other science initiatives.

The budget includes a $387.4m boost to “support the financial sustainability” of the beleaguered national science agency CSIRO, as well as $273m for the National Measurement Institute.

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Has Labor’s tax reform killed ‘rent-vesting’ for young Australians seeking a foothold in the housing market?

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Changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing will make the strategy of renting in a preferred area while buying a cheaper property elsewhere less attractive, experts say

Rent-vesting – a popular strategy used by young Australians to save for their first home – could be killed off by Labor’s tax changes on investment properties, experts warn.

Renters have used the strategy to keep living in their preferred area while buying a cheaper property elsewhere, hoping it will rise in price so they can sell and put the profits towards their first home.

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