Category Archives: Australia news

Albanese wins final election debate over Morrison, according to Seven’s undecided voters

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Potential wage rises dominated the debate early, with the prime minister suggesting a 5% increase could see small businesses fold and jobs lost

Anthony Albanese has been declared the winner of the final leaders’ debate of the election campaign after he and Scott Morrison put forward competing views on wage rises, economic management and energy policy.

With less than a fortnight until polling day, about 150 undecided voters determined Albanese the clear winner of the Channel Seven debate on Wednesday night. The Labor leader convinced 50% of those who voted in the network’s “pub test” compared to 34% for Morrison and 16% who were still undecided.

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Independent funding for NSW’s Icac rejected on ‘philosophical’ grounds

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Premier Dominic Perrottet says the executive should make funding decisions after rejecting new model

New South Wales’ premier, Dominic Perrottet, says he denied a request by the state’s anti-corruption watchdog for its funding to be made independent from government because of a “philosophical view” about the role of the executive.

On Tuesday Perrottet announced an overhaul of funding for the state’s key integrity bodies, including the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac), after long-running concerns about the role government ministers have in providing money to the agencies.

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‘Over-the-top alarmism’: economists dismiss concerns wage rises cause inflation

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Australia’s minimum wage is shrinking compared to median pay, bucking global trends

The recent spurt in inflation has little do with workers being paid more, economists say, warning the claim that wage increases could set off inflation is “over-the-top alarmism”.

Debate over how much the lowest-paid workers should receive has flared during the election campaign after the ACTU this week raised its minimum wage claim to the Fair Work Commission to 5.5% from an earlier goal of 5%, after March-quarter consumer prices spiked.

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Victoria ‘failing’ to offset damage caused by disproportionate level of land clearing

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Auditor general says Victoria has most native vegetation cleared, proportional to land mass, in Australia

Victoria has the most native vegetation cleared proportional to land mass of any Australian state and it is failing to offset the damage caused, the state’s auditor general says.

About 10,380 habitat hectares of native vegetation is removed from Victorian private properties each year, the auditor general estimated in a report tabled in the state’s parliament on Wednesday.

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Dominic Perrottet rules out Sydney congestion tax after confidential plans leaked

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Researchers say the major road transport reform should not be ruled out so quickly as city faces growing gridlock

The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, says his government will not introduce a congestion charge but researchers are calling for the major road transport reform not to be ruled out so quickly.

“There is no plan for a congestion tax and and we can rule it out completely,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

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Leaders face off in final debate – as it happened

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Prime minister says wage increase would put jobs at risk as leaders meet for third time during campaign on Channel Seven; Barnaby Joyce discusses China threat in National Press Club address; at least 53 Covid deaths across nation with WA cases hitting new daily high. This blog is now closed

Jane Hume then seemingly defends Scott Morrison’s criticism of barristers and lawyers yesterday as being taken out of context:

Q: Where have we become, as a nation, when the Prime Minister of Australia yesterday said that he has no truck with barristers and lawyers?

Well, I don’t think he said that he has no truck with the legal system.

I’m not entirely sure of the context of that comment but I can assure you the Prime Minister upholds the rule of law and respects the legal profession.

I don’t think this is a comment worth taking out of context.

In the context of the Icac, the Government wants to make sure there is a Commonwealth integrity commission introduced in the life this parliament but we want to make sure that it’s one that presumes innocence, not guilt, that it doesn’t turn into a show trial, that it isn’t simply Icac on 24/7TV. We want to make sure it delivers integrity.

I didn’t say that. The Prime Minister said that.

We want to make sure - I do, as the Prime Minister, and the Coalition Government - that any Commonwealth integrity commission delivers justice, it delivers a presumption of innocence and it doesn’t deliver a show trial which is exactly what the Prime Minister is objecting too.

I think that Katherine Deves is fighting for an important cause, which is fairness for women in sport ...

I would not use those words. I wouldn’t use them on social media, and I wouldn’t use them in conversation with you or anyone. That said, Katherine Deves is fighting for an important cause.

I’m not going to pass judgement on what the prime minister did or didn’t say. But the most important thing is Katherine Deves is fighting for an important cause, which is fairness for women being able to play in sport fairly and equally.

I think there’s an awful lot of women in those seats that want to make sure that they and their daughters can play fairly and equally in sport. In sport.

I’m not going to second-guess how people would feel about those comments. Suffice to say ...

These are sensitive issues and should be approached cautiously, making sure our language is not insensitive in the way it’s expressed, because these are important issues and we know that particularly transgender children are some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

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Migrating turtles don’t really know where they’re going, study shows

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Hawksbill turtles often travel circuitous routes for short distances – one swam 1,306km to reach an island just 176km away

How migrating animals like sea turtles navigate hundreds to thousands of kilometres across the open ocean has intrigued biologists since Charles Darwin. But some sea turtles might not really know where they’re going, new research suggests.

Analysis by an international team of scientists has mapped the movements of hawksbill turtles as they swam from their nesting grounds in the Chagos Archipelago to foraging sites also in the Indian Ocean.

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Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed shot and brother killed in Sydney double shooting

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Tarek Zahed in critical condition after he and his brother Omar were gunned down in the foyer of a gym in Auburn

Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed is in a critical condition and his brother Omar has died after they were riddled with bullets in the foyer of a gym in Sydney’s west.

Emergency services were called to the Body Fit Gym on Parramatta Road, Auburn, after reports of a shooting at about 8pm on Tuesday.

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Industry warns ’small business can’t afford it’ after Albanese backs 5.1% minimum wage rise

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Employers argue that excessive minimum pay increases will fuel inflation as unions call for ‘incredibly reasonable’ boost to meet cost-of-living pressures

Employers have warned against “unaffordable” wage increases after Anthony Albanese backed a 5.1% minimum wage rise to keep up with inflation.

Despite the warnings, the Australian Industry Group has raised its own submission to the Fair Work Commission from 2% to 2.5%, while the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has asked for low-paid workers to get a 3% rise.

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‘One chance to get this right’: Queensland domestic violence inquiry must address police culture

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Analysis: the landmark McMurdo report was first described as ‘just another woke report’ by the police union president

The Queensland government will on Wednesday announce the terms of reference for a four-month commission of inquiry into how the Queensland police service handles domestic violence.

For leading academics, women’s advocates and domestic violence victims, the inquiry has been a long time coming.

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‘Beyond a joke’: Uber and taxi drivers plead for relief as petrol prices rise again

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Drivers say costs have surged but fares have stayed flat, forcing them to be picky about the trips they choose

Ride-share and taxi drivers say the rising cost of petrol is putting them under enormous strain and have bemoaned existing relief measures as a “joke”.

Major ride-share companies including Uber introduced a temporary levy in response to record high petrol prices in March. Ola was the first to act, increasing its fares by 15%.

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More than half of prescriptions for medicinal cannabis in Australia given in Queensland, study says

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Anxiety and sleep disorders were some reasons given for prescriptions despite lack of evidence for cannabis treatment, researchers find

More than half of all prescriptions for medicinal cannabis in Australia are written by doctors in Queensland, with prescriptions often given for conditions there is little evidence medicinal cannabis can treat, new research reveals.

Medicinal cannabis products such as capsules, creams, oils, lozenges, sprays and granulated flowers were approved for prescription 159,665 times between the start of Australia’s medicinal cannabis program in February 2016 and September 2021, research led by the University of Sydney’s Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics shows.

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Election 2022 live updates: prepoll voting rush; Albanese lands in Sydney; 49 Covid deaths

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Reports of rush on early voting; Scott Morrison reiterates support for Katherine Deves; Greens launch environmental policies; nation reports at least 49 Covid deaths. Follow today’s news live

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning, Catherine King was also asked about Labor’s timetable (if it won the election) for the religious discrimination bill:

We need to consult again with both religious organisations, with LGBTIQ+ groups, we don’t want – we want to make sure we’re able to protect religious freedoms and people’s religious expression, but we don’t want to introduce new discrimination.

That’s what the government’s bill did. It had their own members, particularly in some of the inner-city seats saying they couldn’t support it. I didn’t get into parliament to put more discrimination on people. I want to remove discrimination from people, including people who have religious faith, but I don’t want to make it worse for other people.

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Indigenous woman’s screams for help before her death were ‘excruciating’, fellow inmate tells inquest

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Veronica Nelson died in a Melbourne jail in early 2020 and a woman who was in a nearby cell has told an inquest authorities ‘let her die’

Prison staff allegedly left Indigenous woman Veronica Nelson to die in her cell after she screamed for help for hours, a former inmate has told an inquest.

Aboriginal woman Kylie Bastin was in a cell close to Nelson’s at Melbourne’s Dame Phyllis Frost Centre on the evening of 1 January 2020.

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Alan Tudge says he is willing to return to frontbench after election in first interview in months

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Liberal MP questioned at prepoll in Melbourne electorate of Aston after declining media requests during campaign

Exiled cabinet minister Alan Tudge says he plans to return to the government frontbenches if the Coalition wins the election, while also claiming he is “unaware” of the reasons his former staffer Rachelle Miller is getting a taxpayer-funded payout of more than half a million dollars.

Tudge, who stood aside as education minister in December 2021, says he has no information about the payment Miller is receiving, and denied he had been avoiding media questioning.

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Former cricketer Ryan Campbell given just 7% chance of survival after cardiac arrest

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  • Australian international now expected to make full recovery
  • Cause of collapse unknown with heart attack ruled out

Former Australian cricketer Ryan Campbell says he was only given a 7% chance of survival after suffering a cardiac arrest in April. Campbell, who played two ODIs and three T20s for Australia and is now the national coach of the Netherlands, was at an England playground with his two children when he suddenly felt ill.

He was given CPR at the scene before being rushed to the NHS Royal Stoke University Hospital, where he spent seven days in an induced coma. The 50-year-old has now been discharged and is expected to make a full recovery. Tests have ruled out a heart attack as the cause of the cardiac arrest, and tests also show no damage to the heart.

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Smashed avocados: fruit dumped in Queensland amid bumper harvest and rising transport costs

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Truckloads of low-grade avocados left to rot in Atherton as farmers react to tight margins and oversupply

Farmers have been forced to dump thousands of avocados in far north Queensland because of an oversupply of the fruit and increased transportation and packaging costs.

Jan De Lai, a resident of Atherton in far north Queensland, posted the photos of the discarded avocados to Facebook after finding them at the tip.

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Australians urged to back Indigenous voice to parliament in History is Calling campaign

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First Nations leaders call for referendum to ‘do what 1967 didn’t do, which is empower our people’

A new education campaign pushing for a First Nations voice to parliament is being unrolled by the creators of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The History is Calling campaign will urge Australians to answer the Uluru Dialogue’s 2017 invitation to legally enshrine First Nations people in the constitution via a referendum as an urgent election issue.

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Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial: witness expected to deny wrongdoing in killing of Afghan villager

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Person 11 to give evidence on allegation by newspapers that Roberts-Smith kicked handcuffed man off cliff before ordering him shot

An Australian soldier alleged by three newspapers to have participated with Ben Roberts-Smith in the “joint criminal enterprise” of murdering an Afghan villager named Ali Jan is set to appear in the federal court this week as a witness for Roberts-Smith in his defamation action against the newspapers.

Anonymised before the court as Person 11, the SAS’s soldier evidence will be critical to Roberts-Smith’s case over the events in the village of Darwan on 11 September 2012, when Roberts-Smith is alleged, by the newspapers in their defence, to have kicked a handcuffed Ali Jan off a cliff before ordering him shot.

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NSW education staff say they are being sent to schools without adequate training to ‘plug the casual crisis’

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Workers concerned they will be covering flu-related teacher absences in coming months with no end date for scheme given

Education department staff being “conscripted” to fill Covid-related vacancies at New South Wales schools have said they are being sent into teaching environments without adequate training, and were just plugging holes in a broader “casual crisis”.

One employee, who has never worked with or been specifically trained to care for special needs students, claimed they were sent to teach a class of students with disabilities.

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