Category Archives: Australia news

Jim Chalmers defends delay in reinstating Covid leave payments as cases rise

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The $750 payment for those who need to isolate due to Covid has been extended through September, following pressure on the government

Reinstating Covid-19 isolation payments was a necessary move in the wake of rising cases despite criticism the government was slow in doing so, according to the treasurer, Jim Chalmers.

With infections continuing to increase, a decision was made on Saturday to restore the leave pay measure until the end of September.

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Michael Matthews brings the heat with epic win at Tour de France

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  • Australian rider claims first Tour de France victory in five years
  • Matthews braved 40 degree heat to fight back and win late duel

Australian cycling star Michael Matthews believes he’s reprised the story of his distinguished career with one epic triumph of rare courage and heart at the Tour de France.

The man from Canberra, known throughout cycling as “Bling” for his love of shiny baubles, produced his most glittering victory on Saturday on an exhausting, undulating 192.5km slog from Saint Etienne to Mende.

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Tool to assess jailed terrorists before release criticised as unreliable and prejudicial to Muslims

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Offenders may be kept in prison after serving sentence, but wrongly made order ‘almost always amounts to arbitrary detention', rights group argues

A tool used by authorities to assess the risk posed by convicted terrorists before their release from prison is unreliable and should be investigated, the Australian Human Rights Commission and a peak body for Muslims have argued.

The Violent Extremism Risk Assessment 2 Revised, known as VERA-2R, is used to measure the threat posed by extremists, often when considering whether they will be subject to strict court orders once their prison sentence is completed.

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Sixty-three-year-old jobseeker forced to make 250km round trip to keep welfare benefits

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Woman from Yorketown in South Australia has been referred to a job agency in Kadina under new Workforce Australia program

A 63-year-old woman from regional South Australia needs to make a 250km round trip to meet her mutual obligations and keep her benefits under the new $1.5bn-a-year Workforce Australia program.

Michelle*, who lives in Yorketown, on the Yorke Peninsula, has been referred to a job agency in Kadina, about one-and-a-half-hours’ drive or 125km from her home.

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NSW flood plain harvesting rules won’t protect environment, government advisers warn

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Officials raised concerns water level targets would not ensure river health or meet needs of downstream communities, documents show

The Perrottet government has been warned by its own advisers that proposed flood plain harvesting rules will not adequately protect the environment or the needs of downstream communities in the Murray Darling Basin.

Documents obtained through parliament by independent MLC Justin Field show the government received advice that proposed targets meant to ensure river health were too low.

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Australian government wrongly cancelled citizenship of man on death row in Iraq, family claim

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Ahmad Merhi, who travelled from Sydney to Syria and is accused of joining Islamic State, says he is now stateless as he awaits hanging

The former Coalition government wrongly cancelled the citizenship of an Australian man on death row in Iraq, leaving him stateless as he awaited hanging on terrorism charges, his family and lawyers claim.

Ahmad Merhi, originally from Sydney, travelled to Syria in 2014. He was captured in the country in 2017.

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Australia 17-21 England: third rugby union Test – as it happened

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Michael Hooper has won the toss (for the first time this series I think) and Australia will kick-off.

Gerard Meagher has more on England’s injury situation.

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AMA welcomes Albanese’s decision to extend Covid-19 pandemic leave payments after national cabinet meets

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Prime minister Anthony Albanese says support will continue until the end of September amid winter Covid wave set to peak in August

The Australian Medical Association has welcomed the federal government’s backflip on emergency Covid payments, and says they should say in place as long as necessary.

“They should never have been removed,” president Omar Khorshid said.

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Smiles and unity at the Pacific Islands Forum mask tough questions shelved for another day

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While leaders presented a picture of harmony, more vexing topics like Australia’s fossil fuel ambitions and China were kicked down the road

At the close of the Pacific Islands Forum the leaders emerged from their retreat smiling, cut a giant cake with a sword and then, in an impromptu moment of diplomatic bonhomie, posed for a selfie after Anthony Albanese whipped out his phone, Ellen DeGeneres style.

It was, quite literally, a picture of harmony.

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Australia live updates: PM to meet with state and territory leaders at emergency national cabinet meeting as Covid hospitalisations soar

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Australia’s chief medical officer will give a briefing to state and territory leaders on Saturday and the pandemic leave payment is expected to be extended. Follow live

There were 11,082 new cases in the last reporting period, and 66 people are in intensive care.

First home buyers blowing their budgets

Underquoting is where a property is listed at a price lower than what it’s worth to bait buyers.

It’s illegal but it does happen, particularly in the case of auctions, where underquoted prices can attract more buyers and lead to a bidding war.

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‘In two years no one will care’: expert in institutional amnesia explains where flood response falls down

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Ongoing focus on disaster management needed to avoid kneejerk reactions from one event to the next

Australia’s response to flood emergencies will only improve when governments can maintain focus in the times between crises, a researcher specialising in the topic has warned.

Speaking before the release of reports into this year’s floods in Queensland and NSW, Dr Alastair Stark, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Queensland, said disaster inquiries often produced effective lessons only for their implementation by governments and agencies to stall.

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‘Not just another wave’: Australia’s Covid hospitalisations reach record levels in several states

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Experts warn of worse to come, with most states likely several weeks away from peak hospitalisation rates

Hospitals across the country are “bursting at the seams” as the number of people being admitted with Covid-19 reaches record levels in several states.

Western Australia recorded its highest number of Covid hospitalisations to date on Thursday, with Queensland also expected to surpass its January peak in coming days.

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Gas giant Chevron falls further behind on carbon capture targets for Gorgon gasfield

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While scale of shortfall is uncertain, conservationists claim admission is proof the project isn’t working

Gas giant Chevron has fallen even further behind on targets to capture and store CO2 at its mega gas project in Western Australian, but has refused to say by how much.

The company also confirmed on Friday it had bought and surrendered 5.23m tonnes of CO2 offsets to make up for the failure to meet its 2021 target at its CCS project at the offshore Gorgon gasfield in Western Australia.

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Two-year wait for a wheelchair: inquiry hears of difficulty accessing NDIS for remote Indigenous communities

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Royal commission told NDIA services and communications need to be tailored to meet the needs of First Nations people

An Indigenous person living with disability in a remote Northern Territory community had to wait two years for a wheelchair, a royal commission has been told.

A report into National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) performance at Ngukurr, 635km from Darwin, found mainstream models of delivery were not working, and would not work in other remote areas.

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Australia news live: nation records 66 Covid deaths as push for Albanese to continue pandemic leave payments and free RATs grows

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NSW has recorded 12,228 new cases and 14 deaths in the past 24 hours.

There are 2,027 people in hospital and of those, 60 are in ICU.

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Film based on Daniel Morcombe murder case is ‘selfish cash grab’, parents say

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Bruce Morcombe asks filmgoers to not see Thomas M Wright’s The Stranger, but producers say it does not name Daniel or depict his death

The father of murdered Queensland schoolboy Daniel Morcombe has called for Australians to boycott The Stranger, a film based on the undercover police operation that led to the arrest of Morcombe’s killer, which is scheduled to premiere next month.

On Friday, Bruce Morcombe told Perth’s 6PR radio station that filmgoers should “save their 20 bucks” on a film ticket and instead donate it to the foundation set up in his son’s name.

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Albanese to restore Covid leave payment as emergency national cabinet meeting called

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Australia’s chief medical officer will give a briefing to state and territory leaders on Saturday as government backflips on pandemic support

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Anthony Albanese will propose that Canberra and the states extend the pandemic leave payment during a snap national cabinet briefing that has been expedited to Saturday.

The government has spent the past week signalling the existing $750 payment would not be extended over the winter for budgetary reasons, but that decision has been reversed after mounting pressure from backbenchers, premiers, and health experts.

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Police prosecutor claimed case over Black Lives Matter rally was ‘fatally flawed’, Melbourne court told

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Officer who allegedly flagged the dropping of charges was not authorised to make that decision, Victoria police tell court

A Victoria police prosecutor had told lawyers for two women charged over a 2020 Black Lives Matter rally held in Melbourne that the case against them was “fatally flawed” and said charges would be withdrawn immediately, the organisers’ lawyer has told a court.

Crystal McKinnon, 41, and Meriki Onus, 34 were charged with breaching directions of Victoria’s chief health officer by planning the protest against Indigenous deaths in custody during a Covid lockdown.

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Covid-19 Australia data tracker: coronavirus cases today, deaths, hospitalisations and vaccination

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Guardian Australia brings together all the latest on daily new Covid-19 cases, as well as stats, charts and live state by state data from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, ACT and NT. We bring together the latest numbers on the vaccine rollout and fourth dose booster vaccination rates.

Due to the difference in reporting times between states, territories and the federal government, it can be difficult to get a current picture of the pandemic in Australia. Here we have brought together data on cases, deaths, hospitalisations and vaccinations.

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Senior public servant questioned Women’s Network rebrand but not phallic logo design, documents show

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Federal government’s ‘women’s champion’ did not raise concerns about purple, elongated emblem but asked who initiated rebrand

A senior public servant designated as the federal government’s “women’s champion” raised questions about a controversial new logo for the Women’s Network, though no concerns were raised about the design’s phallic appearance, according to newly released documents.

The purple, elongated logo was swiftly withdrawn in March after much public mockery, with the National Older Women’s Network describing the image as “either thoughtless or an insult”.

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