Category Archives: Australia news

Timor-Leste hit by 6.4-magnitude earthquake that was felt in Darwin

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Quake struck to east of Timor-Leste, with residents in Northern Territory capital reporting strong shaking

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 struck off the coast of Timor-Leste and was so strong it was felt in Darwin, Australia.

The quake hit at 11.36am local time (12.06pm Darwin time), according to Geosciences Australia, and prompted some people in the capital of Dili to flee buildings, though a tsunami was ruled out.

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Father Bob Maguire adds to criticism of NSW government’s voluntary assisted dying laws

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Catholic Weekly called on to apologise over editorial comparing new rights to the Holocaust

The maverick Catholic figure Father Bob Maguire has criticised New South Wales’ premier and the state’s parliament for passing voluntary assisted dying laws, after a scathing editorial on the legislation was published in the Catholic Weekly.

On Friday Jewish groups put pressure on the newspaper, funded by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, to apologise and amend the piece, which compared the new laws with the Holocaust and criticised Dominic Perrottet’s leadership.

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Murugappan family to return to Biloela on bridging visas

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Tamil family can return to Queensland town while their immigration status is resolved, Labor’s Jim Chalmers says

The Murugappan family is set to return home, to the rural Queensland town of Biloela.

The interim home affairs minister, Jim Chalmers, said on Friday afternoon that he had exercised his powers under the Migration Act to give them bridging visas, fulfilling a pre-election promise to let them go home.

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Scott Morrison’s staff urged border force to publicise Sri Lankan boat interception on election day

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ABF officials made it clear publication of the interception could only proceed on the authority of the home affairs minister, Guardian Australia understands

Scott Morrison’s staff conveyed a clear message to border force officials through Karen Andrews’ office on election day that they wanted the department to publicise the interception of a boat from Sri Lanka, Guardian Australia understands.

While an investigation into the politically charged incident is ongoing, people familiar with the events last Saturday have confirmed that on current information, staff working for Andrews made it clear to officials that Morrison wanted the boat interception publicised. They also conveyed that they wanted the opposition briefed about the incident, given the caretaker convention was in force.

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NSW paramedics take industrial action; interest rate rises predicted – as it happened

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NSW paramedics take industrial action; election vote count ‘progressing well’; interest rate rises on horizon; Penny Wong speaks at Fiji press conference; Anthony Albanese signs Fair Work Commission submission on increasing minimum wage; decision on Biloela family due; at least 39 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Peter Dutton was on the Today show this morning, maintaining his charm offensive from yesterday, and distancing himself from former prime minister Scott Morrison.

Dutton emphasised his “work ethic” and his connection with John Howard and Peter Costello (very interesting in light of the election result):

I have a lot of respect for Scott and all of my former leaders, but I grew up under John Howard and I was assistant treasurer to Peter Costello.

I have, I think, an incredible work ethic and I have a desire to do what is right by our country. I’ve had tough jobs in immigration, border protection and in defence ...

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Lincoln Crowley appointed Australia’s first Indigenous supreme court justice

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Highly regarded Queensland barrister was told as a boy he would likely end up in jail because his family is Aboriginal

Barrister Lincoln Crowley QC will become the first Indigenous judge to preside over an Australian superior court, after he was appointed to the supreme court of Queensland.

Colleagues said Crowley, a well-regarded barrister and former crown prosecutor who was made Queen’s Counsel in 2018, had broken a significant barrier for First Nations people.

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Sydney CBD health warning issued over Legionnaires’ disease outbreak

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Visitors to the city in the past 10 days advised to look out for symptoms after five people admitted to hospital

People who have visited the Sydney CBD in the past 10 days are being warned to watch out for symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease after five people were admitted to hospital with related cases of pneumonia.

The five people – two women and three men, ranging in age from their 40s to 70s – visited locations in the CBD including Museum station, York St, Park St and Martin Place in the 10 days before their symptoms appeared.

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‘Highly implausible’ that new Galilee Basin coalmines would be profitable, study finds

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Report says Adani’s Carmichael mine in central Queensland seems ‘rather a political decision, not an economically driven one’

Any new coalmines in Australia’s Galilee Basin, including Adani’s Carmichael mine, will not be economically viable in the long run under even the most generous assumptions about the future of the fossil fuel, according to an analysis by German academics.

The study, developed in conjunction with Australian experts, found it was “highly implausible” that mines in the central Queensland basin could run profitably and there was a high chance they would end up as stranded assets.

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Lawyers call on NSW premier to urgently review thousands of Covid fines

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Law Society argues many fines issued to vulnerable residents are invalid, unfair and could trap disadvantaged people in debt

The Law Society of New South Wales has called on the premier, Dominic Perrottet, to “urgently” review thousands of Covid fines issued to the state’s most vulnerable, warning many were invalid, unfair, and have caused the disadvantaged to amass “debt they are unable to pay”.

Earlier this year, the Guardian revealed that small towns with high Indigenous populations and western Sydney suburbs home to the city’s most socioeconomically disadvantaged residents bore the brunt of Covid fines during the ramp-up in enforcement in the Delta outbreak.

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‘I will recover loudly so others don’t die quietly’: Queensland MP recounts horrific abuse

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Labor member for Macalister Melissa McMahon tells parliament of abuse she suffered, announces leave of absence

Queensland MP Melissa McMahon has divulged a harrowing childhood of sexual abuse as she announced a leave of absence from parliament.

On Thursday, the Labor member for Macalister, south of Brisbane, told parliament she would take time out to rebalance her life and family.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues in Australia is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732) and the crisis support service Lifeline, 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

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Penny Wong tells Pacific nations ‘we have heard you’ as Australia and China battle for influence

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Foreign minister uses speech in Fiji to declare ‘this is a different Australian government’ that will act responsibly on climate change

The new foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has promised to treat Pacific island countries with respect, telling an audience in Fiji that Australia is “a partner that doesn’t come with strings attached” and won’t “impose unsustainable financial burdens”.

Wong promised to respect Pacific priorities and institutions as she set out an implicit contrast with China, which is pursuing a sweeping regional economic and security deal with Pacific nations that would dramatically expand Beijing’s influence and reach into those countries.

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‘Time for change’: Darren Chester confirms he will challenge Barnaby Joyce for Nationals leadership

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Former veterans affairs minister says ‘it’s important we listen to the message we received over the weekend from the Australian people’

Nationals MP Darren Chester has confirmed he will run for the party’s leadership in a ballot next week, setting up an explosive showdown with his rival Barnaby Joyce - a man Chester once described as “incoherent”.

The Nine newspapers reported Chester saying it was “time for a change” in the party, and that the Nationals needed to “take some responsibility for the Liberal losses in the city”.

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Liberal party should forgo ‘entitled’ Kooyong voters, says their own state Liberal MP

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Tim Smith, who is retiring in November, says Coalition needs to ‘stop obsessing with the woke causes of inner-urban elites’ and focus on suburbs

The voters of Kooyong in Melbourne’s east have been described as “loud, entitled and privileged” – by their own state Liberal MP.

Victorian Liberal Tim Smith represents the state electorate of Kew, which overlaps the federal seat of Kooyong, where independent Monique Ryan defeated former treasurer Josh Frydenberg in Saturday’s election.

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Labor one seat from claiming majority as Liberals launch review of election defeat – as it happened

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New foreign minister tells Fiji ‘I hope I will be here often’; Jane Hume and Brian Loughnane to review Liberal party’s election campaign; Labor retains Tasmanian seat of Lyons; nation records 71 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

The PM is asked what he thought of Tanya Plibersek saying Peter Dutton looks like Voldemort, and reiterates that he wants to “change the way politics operates”:

It was a mistake. It shouldn’t have been said. We all make mistakes from time to time.

What we need to do is to move on from them and it is how we respond to them. Tanya Plibersek responded appropriately. I want to change the way that politics operates.

Quite clearly, one of the issues that came up, we might have discussed it in previous weeks on this program, is we couldn’t tell from opposition where all the pots of money had been stored by this government.

They abused the process of the contingency reserve to create funds for use during the election campaign. We will go through those line by line because it is taxpayers’ money, not Liberal party or National party money that was being allocated in the billions, frankly, during this campaign.

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Ban on new gas connections will help transition Victoria away from fossil fuels, inquiry finds

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Parliamentary committee also recommends cut-off date for sale of diesel and petrol cars

A Victorian parliamentary committee has recommended the Andrews government consider a ban on gas connections in new homes to help accelerate the state’s transition to renewables.

It also urged Victoria to commit to a cut-off date for the sale of new petrol, diesel and gas-fuelled vehicles.

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Australian hospitals postpone screening tests as world grapples with shortage of imaging dyes

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Australian Medical Association backs delay of non-urgent tests but says supply issues highlight need for national stockpile of critical medical supplies

Public hospitals in Australia are postponing non-urgent screening tests and are recommending doctors consider alternative imaging options as the health system grapples with a global shortage of medical imaging dyes, widely used in diagnostic tests such as CT scans.

The shortage of medical imaging dyes is further proof Australia needs to develop a national stockpile of critical medical supplies and increase its domestic manufacturing of crucial medicines, the Australian Medical Association has said.

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Deal proposed by China would dramatically expand security influence in Pacific

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Leaked copy of draft shows Beijing wants more involvement in policing, cybersecurity and marine mapping

China is pursuing a sweeping regional economic security deal with Pacific nations that would dramatically expand its influence and reach into those countries, in a pact that has western countries and some Pacific leaders deeply worried.

The wide-ranging deal lays out China’s vision for a much closer relationship with the Pacific, especially on security matters, with China proposing it would be involved in training police, cybersecurity, sensitive marine mapping and gaining greater access to natural resources.

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Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand ‘ready to respond’ to Pacific’s security needs as China seeks deal in region

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Prime minister says ‘the Pacific is our home’ as Beijing plans a regional security pact with almost a dozen island nations

Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand is “ready to respond” to security needs in the Pacific, after it emerged China is planning a Pacific-wide security deal with almost a dozen island nations.

The prime minister, who is touring the US, said she believed the Pacific could meet its security needs internally, implying it should do so without intervention from China or elsewhere. “On anything related to security arrangements, we are very strongly of the view that we have within the Pacific the means and ability to respond to any security challenges that exist and New Zealand is willing to do that,” Ardern said.

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Meta asks to be spared tighter rules in Australia, saying iPhone’s tracking blocker is hurting business

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Company tells consumer watchdog it is set to lose $10bn this year in wake of Apple iOS feature hampering ability to collect user data

Meta says Apple’s decision to allow users to stop apps tracking them on their phones has diminished Facebook’s advertising market power, and therefore the social media giant should not face further regulation in Australia.

In mid-2021 Apple rolled out a new feature in iOS 14.5 called “app tracking transparency” which asks for users’ consent before an app can track their activity across websites and apps, and allows users to opt out of the tracking at any time.

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Linda Burney says investigating Youpla funeral fund will be ‘top of my agenda’

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Incoming Indigenous affairs minster says predicament of families affected by collapse of predatory funeral fund is ‘totally unacceptable’

Linda Burney will make an investigation into the predatory funeral fund ACBF-Youpla one of her “highest priorities” on taking over as Indigenous affairs minister, after Guardian Australia revealed new details of its collapse, which left more than 13,000 people facing the probable loss of everything they had paid into the fund.

“I assure people that this is the top of my agenda, probably the first thing that needs to be resolved, and I will do that carefully,” Burney told Guardian Australia.

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