Show shared final photo of cast and crew on final day of filming when ‘tears were shed’
Neighbours has shared a final photo of its cast and crew after filming wrapped on the last scene of the long-running Australian soap opera.
The show’s executive producer revealed tears were shed on the final day of filming but feels its 37-year run is an “incredible achievement” that should be celebrated.
Continue reading...Nadesalingam family arrive back home to Biloela; New Zealand ‘heartened’ by Albanese government’s climate stance; Australia records at least 40 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed
Jacinda Ardern will be raising Australia’s controversial deportation policy in today’s meeting. Asked if she has knowledge of whether the government is prepared to “water it down a little bit”, she replies:
Just to be clear, the issue we have is not with deportation. We deport as well. If a New Zealander comes to Australia and commits a crime, send them home ... but when someone comes here and essentially, hasn’t even really had any connection with New Zealand at all ... have all their connections in Australia and are essentially Australian, sending them back to New Zealand, that’s where we’ve had the grievance.
I’ve heard the prime minister prior to winning the election speak to his acknowledgement that that is the part of the policy that we’ve taken issue with. Even that acknowledgement says to me he’s hearing us, he knows it’s a problem.
It’s been a bugbear for us for a long time so I would like to see movement on it.
We talked about music on occasion but I’m not sure I would’ve picked necessarily the right music if I think I was given that task.
Continue reading...Family ecstatic to be back in small Queensland town that fought so hard to free them, but they still seek permanent protection
The Nadesalingam family have finally touched down in Biloela, four years after they were taken from their home by the Australian Border Force.
As the family walked out of Thangool airport on Friday, Priya dropped to her knees and kissed the ground.
Continue reading...Exclusive: The Dogs by John Hughes withdrawn from $60,000 prize after novelist admits he used parts of nonfiction work of Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich ‘without realising’
Australia’s most prestigious books prize, the Miles Franklin literary award, has pulled The Dogs by John Hughes from its 2022 longlist, a day after Hughes apologised for plagiarising parts of the work of a Nobel laureate “without realising” in his acclaimed novel.
Following a Guardian Australia investigation that uncovered 58 similarities and instances of identical text between parts of Hughes’ 2021 novel The Dogs and the 2017 English translation of Svetlana Alexievich’s nonfiction The Unwomanly Face of War, Hughes apologised to Alexievich and her translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky “for using their words without acknowledgment”.
Continue reading...‘What is this, 2004???’ Clarke Gayford posted in response to Australian PM’s gift of Midnight Oil, Spiderbait and Powderfinger albums
Jacinda Ardern’s fiancee has taken a cheeky swipe at Anthony Albanese’s music taste after the Australian prime minister and his New Zealand counterpart exchanged records during the pair’s first face-to-face meeting.
Ardern and Albanese, who have both moonlighted as DJs in the past, made the customary display of gift-giving at their first meeting since the federal election in Sydney on Thursday, with both opting for the high-risk, high-reward gift of music.
Continue reading...Jackson Irvine hopes Australia can reward fans who get up early to watch their World Cup playoff against Peru and inspire the next generation of Socceroos’ with victory. The one-off clash for a spot in the Qatar finals kicks off in Doha from 9pm on Monday, meaning fans in Australia will need to rise in the wee hours of Tuesday morning to catch the game on screens at 4am AEST.
“It seems like a lifetime ago but in a different time that was me getting up and watching games in the morning,” Irvine said in Doha. “Hopefully the younger generation will be waking up and some future Socceroos can tell their own story about how they saw us qualify and come live it themselves.”
Continue reading...The 54-year-old, who had cerebral palsy, died in 2020 from septic shock, multiple organ failure, severe pressure sores and malnourishment
Two directors of the care provider for Adelaide woman Ann Marie Smith have been charged with criminal neglect over her death.
Smith – who had cerebral palsy – died in hospital in April 2020 from septic shock, multiple organ failure, severe pressure sores and malnourishment.
Continue reading...Attorney general Shannon Fentiman awaiting legal advice about the possibility of an appeal
A Queensland teenager who struck and killed a couple in a stolen car while he was drunk and affected by drugs could have his sentence appealed.
The families of victims Matthew Field, 37, and his pregnant partner, Kate Leadbetter, 31, said the 10-year jail sentence handed to the 18-year-old was “grossly inadequate”.
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Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern welcomes ‘reset’ in trans-Tasman relationship after years of tension over visa cancellations on character grounds
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has vowed to consider changing how the government handles visa cancellations in an olive branch to ease longstanding tensions with New Zealand.
The pledge to look at tweaking the scheme prompted the visiting New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to declare the talks in Sydney on Friday allowed for “a reset” in the trans-Tasman relationship.
Continue reading...Wait time for 476 visa, for overseas graduates who want to work or study in Australia for up to 18 months, has blown out to 41 months
Australia’s vast visa backlog is trapping engineering graduates out of the country for up to four years, compounding the skills shortages and causing heartache, frustration and depression among applicants.
The engineering job vacancy rate has increased 97% in 12 months, something the main industry body, Engineers Australia, fears could have a “catastrophic” impact, including by delaying major infrastructure projects relied upon for the nation’s economic recovery.
Continue reading...Diana Reid’s Love & Virtue wins book of the year and literary fiction category at Australian Book Industry Association’s annual awards in Sydney
First Nations writers and female authors have dominated the 2022 Australian Book Industry Association’s (Abia) annual awards, with a debut novel by one of the nation’s most promising young writers taking out top honours.
Diana Reid’s Love & Virtue won the Abia book of the year and literary fiction book of the year at a ceremony in Sydney on Thursday night. Judges praised the novel as “a darkly funny yet unflinching glimpse of early adulthood”. In her review for Guardian Australia, Zoya Patel praised Love & Virtue as “a multilayered page-turner on power, unrequited love and campus rape culture, wrapped in a coming-of-age narrative”.
Continue reading...NSW supreme court dismisses Dr Joseph Ajaka’s application to force Nine Entertainment to hand over draft story by journalist Adele Ferguson
Nine has broadcast its 60 Minutes investigation into a prominent cosmetic surgeon on Thursday night after Dr Joseph Ajaka lost his second legal attempt to have the program hand over draft copies before it aired.
The New South Wales supreme court dismissed a second application from Ajaka for Nine Entertainment to hand over copies of its investigation by the award-winning journalist Adele Ferguson.
Continue reading...The prehistoric artefacts, all made to a similar shape and template, are found in enormous numbers across southern Africa across vast distances
A 65,000-year-old tool – a kind of ancient Swiss Army knife – found across southern Africa has provided scientists with proof that the ancestors of modern homo sapiens were communicating with each other.
In a world first, a team of international scientists have found early humans across the continent made the stone tool in exactly the same shape, using the same template, showing that they shared knowledge with each other.
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Continue reading...Under new laws, anyone found with amount that falls within threshold will be fined, but not charged
The Australian Capital Territory government will decriminalise the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs including heroin, cocaine, MDMA and methamphetamine, becoming the first jurisdiction in the country to do so.
In announcing the reforms on Thursday, the ACT health minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, said it was clear current laws had not worked.
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Continue reading...Cartel members given jail sentences in Australian first after colluding to fix dollar and Vietnamese dong exchange rate
An Australian court has fined a money transfer business $1m and imposed jail sentences on members of a cartel that fixed the Australian dollar and Vietnamese dong exchange rate.
It was the first time an Australian court had imposed jail time for such a crime, however federal court judge Wendy Abraham immediately released the four people – Van Ngoc Le, his son, Tony Le, Thi Huong Nguyen and Khai Van Tran – on good behaviour bonds.
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Continue reading...Two charged after remains found on Glass House Mountains; Victoria’s health workers to receive $3,000 one-off payment; nation records 59 Covid deaths as boosters recommended by Atagi for at-risk children between 12 and 15. This blog is now closed
Capacity mechanism is a priority to bring on renewables, energy ministers say
The first meeting of energy ministers yesterday evening indicated there will be a new intensity in federal-state-territory coordination.
Continue reading...George cites social media posts by network’s political editor in updated claim, which Ten and Van Onselen have strenuously denied
The Channel Ten political reporter Tegan George has expanded her bullying claim against the network, alleging it has failed to stop Peter van Onselen from “tormenting” her in social media posts.
In February George accused the Ten political editor of undermining and humiliating her, including by backgrounding other journalists against her, according to the statement of claim filed against the network in the federal court.
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Continue reading...Tribunal finds her offending was ‘directly related’ to factors including sexual abuse when she was in the care of Australian authorities
A New Zealand-born woman has successfully appealed being deported from Australia under its controversial “501” migration law after a tribunal found her offending was directly related to being abused in Australian state care as a child.
The woman, whose name is withheld, arrived in Australia when she was seven years old with her mother and two siblings, and has lived there for several decades.
Continue reading...Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity says complaint about federal police not about corruption so does not fall within its remit
Australia’s law enforcement integrity watchdog refused to investigate Australian federal police who relied on a deeply flawed technique to use false dates of birth on sworn legal documents to prosecute Indonesian children as adult people smugglers.
Earlier this year, the Guardian used a trove of internal documents to show how police relied on deeply flawed evidence to alter the dates of birth given to them by Indonesian children found crewing asylum boats in 2009 and 2010.
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Continue reading...Agent says tenants must ensure ‘adequate ventilation’ after record-breaking rains spread mould earlier in the year – even as bitter cold arrives
Tenants in Sydney have been told by their real estate agency it is “critical” they regularly open windows during winter to restrict the spread of mould.
CobdenHayson emailed tenants on 1 June with recommendations “to help you prepare for the winter season”.
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