Category Archives: Australia news

Richard Marles eyes meeting with US defence secretary at Singapore forum

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Defence minister’s attendance at high-level security conference the latest in flurry of diplomatic activity by new Labor government

Australia’s new defence minister, Richard Marles, is preparing to travel to Singapore next week for a high-level security conference and a potential first meeting with his US counterpart.

The trip is the latest in a flurry of diplomatic activity by the new Labor government. The minister for foreign affairs, Penny Wong, has just wound up visits to three Pacific countries and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is preparing to fly to Indonesia on Sunday.

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‘Unprecedented’ delays at Australian passport office prompt fears of cancelled travel plans

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People planning an overseas trip may face cancelled or delayed travel arrangements as waiting times balloon out

Australians planning an overseas trip are facing the possibility of cancelled or delayed travel plans as the Australian passport office buckles under post-Covid-restrictions demand.

The “unprecedented” passport processing delays have resulted in people queueing for hours at passport offices and people spending hours calling to check for updates on their documents.

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Mother and son allegedly returned to scene of Darwin hit-and-run to move victim’s body, court told

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Joshua Mason, 23, and his 50-year-old mother, Deborah Mason, likely to plead guilty after victim’s leg was found on Northern Territory highway, lawyer says

A young man allegedly fatally struck a pedestrian with his car before his mother helped load the woman’s body into a ute and the two buried it in bushland outside Darwin, a court has been told.

The discovery of the Indigenous victim’s dismembered leg on the Northern Territory’s Stuart Highway on Tuesday morning triggered a police investigation which lead to the pair’s arrest the next day.

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Elon Musk’s return-to-office threat to Tesla staff sparks Twitter spat with Australian billionaire

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Atlassian boss Scott Farquhar says he’d be happy to poach Musk’s employees for remote jobs at his software company, which allows staff to work from home

Elon Musk’s order that Tesla workers return to the office has sparked a Twitter spat with Australian billionaire Scott Farquhar, after the Atlassian CEO suggested he would be happy to poach Musk’s staff for remote working positions.

In a memo sent to staff, headlined “Remote work is no longer acceptble” [sic], the Tesla CEO wrote that “anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours a week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers”.

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Melbourne’s ‘pause’ on new bike lanes sparks outrage on World Bicycle Day

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Advocates and key councillor hope the halt is short-lived, but transport union criticises existing lanes

Cycling advocates are holding out hope that a halt on new bike lanes in Melbourne CBD announced Friday will be short-lived, warning of the risks posed by gaps in the network.

The Melbourne lord mayor, Sally Capp, said Friday there would be a “pause” on the construction of dedicated cycling lanes in the CBD. The City of Melbourne council said it would instead prioritise upgrading cycling infrastructure on arterial roads.

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Unions back minimum wage submission – as it happened

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Labor government recommends minimum wage be increased in line with inflation; Anthony Albanese says stopping new gas projects ‘doesn’t reflect the needs’ of economy; new monkeypox cases reported in NSW and Victoria; nation records at least 50 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

‘Pick up the phone and call your energy retailer’

The CEO of the Australian Energy Council, Sarah McNamara, appeared on ABC News Breakfast this morning to discuss the perfect storm the market is currently facing.

It is not a systemic market failure under way but there is a coincidence of factors occurring in the market, putting pressure on the wholesale price and that will put pressure on retail bills as well.

Most consumers won’t experience the kind of wholesale market price spikes we are seeing at the moment. That is because their retailers have hedging contracts to ensure their supply costs are smoothed out over time. However, because there is general upward pressure on prices, people are going to experience higher bills over the coming year.

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Icac chief tells pork-barrelling forum that NSW fund is on ‘other side of the line’

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Anti-corruption watchdog plans to publish its own report on pork-barrelling, ‘including whether and how it relates to corrupt conduct’

The head of the New South Wales anti-corruption watchdog has cited the Berejiklian government’s notorious $252m Stronger Communities fund as a clear example of pork-barrelling, saying almost its sole motive was political, calling it “clearly on the other side of the line”.

Peter Hall QC, the chief commissioner of the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac), told a forum, examining the legality of pork-barrelling in politics, that the fund was “on the other side of the line” of what was “permissible”.

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‘Perception and deception’: Australian glass art prize winner plays tricks on the eye

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Tim Edwards spent 35 hours grinding his work into a glass illusion that took out the $15,000 Tom Malone prize

Artist Tim Edwards has won the prestigious Tom Malone prize for Australian glass art with a work that plays tricks with the viewer’s eye.

The winning work, titled Ellipse #8, is a luminous blue form 47cm tall and from some angles it is difficult to tell whether the glass is two- or three-dimensional. The piece is 3D but not very thick with a depth of just 8mm.

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Morrison government failed to show cashless debit card scheme works, auditor general says

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Scathing report finds Department of Social Services has not demonstrated the program is meeting objectives

The auditor general has been highly critical of the former government’s handling of the cashless debit card, finding the Morrison government had not demonstrated whether the scheme was working despite operating trials across the country for more than five years.

A scathing Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report, tabled in parliament on Thursday, said the Department of Social Services, which ran the program, had “not demonstrated that the CDC program is meeting its intended objectives”.

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Environment minister seeks ‘urgent briefing’ over scrapped recovery plans – as it happened

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Tanya Plibersek seeks ‘urgent briefing’ over Coalition scrapping of recovery plans; NSW man diagnosed with monkeypox; nation records 57 Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s news

Treasurer questioned on staff shortages in hospitality

Amid his media blitz, treasurer Jim Chalmers appeared on Sunrise this morning discussing energy woes.

What are we going to do to alleviate those staff issues and how long is it going to take for that to happen?

Obviously there is a role for cheaper childcare so that if people want to work more and earn more we can tap [into] that really big workforce of parents that find it too hard because they get priced out of work by the childcare system. And we are up for ... conversation with business about migration settings to make sure that they are appropriate so that they are not a substitute for doing those other things at home.

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Trial for man accused of raping Brittany Higgins delayed after defendant’s lawyer unable to appear

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Delay of up to three weeks possible for trial of Bruce Lehrmann, who has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Higgins in Parliament House in 2019

The trial of the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins may be delayed by up to three weeks after his barrister pulled out days before the case was due to be heard.

Bruce Lehrmann, who is charged with sexual intercourse without consent, has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Higgins at Parliament House in Canberra in 2019.

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Hey Dad! actor and child sex offender Robert Hughes to be deported to the UK

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The 73-year-old, who was sentenced in 2014 to a maximum of 10 years and nine months in prison, has been granted parole and will be deported to UK upon release

Disgraced Hey Dad! actor and convicted child sex offender Robert Hughes has been granted parole and will be deported to the United Kingdom after his release from jail this month.

Hughes, who starred as Martin Kelly in the TV comedy from 1987 to 1994, was sentenced in 2014 to a maximum of 10 years and nine months in prison, which is due to expire in January 2025.

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South Australia turns to diesel generators as gas shortage and price spike hits

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Calls for faster transition away from ‘volatile’ fossil fuel supply as SA burns large amounts of gas and diesel

Australia’s east coast gas shortage has forced South Australia to turn to diesel generators in order to meet demand, prompting calls for a faster transition away from “volatile” fossil fuels towards renewable energy and storage.

According to the energy mix tracker published by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo), South Australia’s energy mix around 9am Thursday morning was made up of 61% gas and 11% diesel, with wind and solar providing the rest.

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Liberal-led Senate inquiry into ABC and SBS abandoned

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Ita Buttrose previously branded investigation of complaints handling ‘an act of political interference’

A Liberal-led parliamentary inquiry into the complaints handling processes of the ABC and SBS will not go ahead.

The environment and communications Senate committee officially dropped its inquiry on Thursday after the completion of an independent review of the procedures.

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Samoa’s PM says China’s expectation of Pacific-wide deal ‘something we could not agree to’

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Regional matters must be taken to Pacific Islands Forum, says Fiame Naomi Mata’afa after countries declined deal with Beijing

Samoa’s prime minister has suggested it was unreasonable for China to expect a Pacific trade and security deal to be rushed through this week, as she warmly welcomed the new Australian government’s climate policy.

The Australian minister for foreign affairs, Penny Wong, announced during a joint press conference in Samoa on Thursday that Australia would provide it with a new Guardian-class patrol vessel to replace the one that was grounded last year.

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Cheng Lei: partner of Australian journalist detained in China says he is concerned about her declining health

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Nick Coyle says monthly consular visits by Australian officials were suspended because of China’s strict Covid-19 protocols

The partner of Chinese-Australian journalist Cheng Lei – detained by Beijing authorities since August 2020 – has said he has serious concerns about her declining health behind bars in an interview aired on Thursday.

Cheng, a mother of two and former anchor at Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, was formally arrested in February 2021, when she was charged with “supplying state secrets overseas”.

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‘World of pain’: warnings of gas shortages amid soaring power prices add to Australia’s energy woes

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Aemo has identified a possible shortfall of gas supplies on Thursday in Victoria, SA and Tasmania amid ongoing burst of cold weather

Australia’s energy woes are mounting with the market operator warning of potential gas supply shortages on Thursday, one of the largest generators issuing a profit warning and more retailers turning away customers as wholesale power prices soar.

Just hours after new treasurer, Jim Chalmers, warned of “this perfect storm of energy price spikes … doing enormous damage to our employers, to our households, and to our national economy,” spot power prices were soaring towards $1,000 per megawatt hour in most of the east coast grid after an alert – now cancelled – that Victoria was facing evening reserve shortages.

More concerning, though, was a separate warning by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) that it had identified a possible shortfall of gas supplies in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania on Thursday amid an ongoing burst of cold weather.

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Julia Gillard says Covid-led shift to remote working could render some female employees ‘invisible’

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Former PM joins panel discussion of pandemic’s effect on workplace gender equality and urges bosses not to overlook women

Former prime minister Julia Gillard says women risk becoming “invisible behind the screen” during the Covid-led transition to remote working and has urged bosses to ensure female employees working from home aren’t overlooked for promotion.

Australia’s first female prime minister on Wednesday also welcomed the record number of women in Anthony Albanese’s cabinet, calling it “very important” as the Labor ministry was sworn in.

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Disgruntled NSW Liberals lay blame for federal election rout

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After preselection chaos, party is pointing fingers at the state executive, Alex Hawke, Scott Morrison – and Covid restrictions

A wave of recriminations is sweeping through the NSW Liberal party over the division’s performance and the delays in preselecting candidates for NSW federal seats that resulted in most being chosen only weeks before last month’s federal election.

Blame is being levelled at the unwieldy, faction-riven state executive, at the former prime minister Scott Morrison and his “captain’s picks”, and at his delegate on the state executive, Alex Hawke, who had been widely blamed for holding up preselections by failing to make himself available for months to vet candidates.

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First Nations farmers to get traditional lessons of the land in Victorian pilot scheme

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State government to launch program to improve skills of Aboriginal agricultural workers and develop business opportunities

Mick Buckworth, like many of his ancestors, loves being on the land.

The farm manager of Rumbalara Aboriginal Cooperative in Shepparton, in regional Victoria, said the skills he has developed – from knowing how to plant “kangaroo tails” to carefully putting traditional beehives together – were both valuable and satisfying.

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