Category Archives: Australia news

Why are monkeypox cases suddenly emerging across the world and could the virus have mutated?

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Data prior to current outbreaks suggested resurgence of the disease, with waning immunity from smallpox vaccination contributing to spread

The sudden emergence of monkeypox in several countries has raised questions about how the virus, which is most common in central and west Africa, has managed to spread.

Many health experts have said the monkeypox cases in 12 countries are not cause for panic, given the virus is much less infectious than illnesses like Covid and rarely fatal, but it is highly unusual.

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Nationals could dump Barnaby Joyce over net zero stance with Peter Dutton set to lead Liberals

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Sussan Ley or Jane Hume likely to be deputy Liberal leader as Coalition continues to grapple with election fallout

The National party will spill its leadership positions next Monday as the Liberals debate whether Peter Dutton’s deputy should be Jane Hume or Sussan Ley.

As the Coalition continues to grapple with the fallout from Saturday’s election rout amid conflicting views about how to reposition in response, Anthony Albanese was sworn in as Australia’s 31st prime minister before leaving for Tokyo and his first meeting with Joe Biden and key regional allies.

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Australia to stand with Pacific islands on climate crisis and ‘respect’ region, Penny Wong says

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New foreign affairs minister tells Pacific leaders Australia ‘will listen because we care’ after reports China may be seeking security agreement with Kiribati

Australia’s new foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, will seek to improve relations with Pacific island countries, flagging an early visit to the region and promising to be “a generous, respectful and reliable” partner.

China’s new security deal with Solomon Islands was a point of political dispute during the Australian election campaign and there are now reports that Beijing could be planning to strike a similar agreement with Kiribati.

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Lynette Dawson seen with bruises on throat before she disappeared, Chris Dawson murder trial hears

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A colleague at childcare centre where Lynette Dawson worked tells court she saw bruises in January 1982

Chris Dawson’s wife Lynette was seen with bruises around her throat three days before she disappeared in 1982, a Sydney court has been told.

Annette Leary gave evidence in Dawson’s murder trial on Monday saying she had seen Lynette Dawson with the bruises at the Sydney children’s centre where they both worked.

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Mark McGowan accuses travelling press pack of ‘bullying’ Anthony Albanese and reporting ‘lies’

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In a blistering attack in Perth, the Western Australia premier also took aim at Peter Dutton, labelling him a conservative ‘extremist’

Western Australian premier Mark McGowan has launched a blistering attack on members of the federal press gallery who followed Anthony Albanese’s election campaign, accusing them of reporting “lies” as well as “bullying” the new prime minister at press conferences.

McGowan, who joined Albanese for several media events in Perth during the six-week campaign, said he was “shocked and appalled” by some in the Canberra-based media pack, who attracted ongoing criticism from Labor supporters and veteran journalists for interjections and combative questioning.

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Pollsters breathe sigh of relief after accurately predicting Labor’s election victory

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Major polling companies changed methods after 2019 failure but two-party preferred measure misses Greens and independents

Australia’s major opinion polls all accurately predicted Saturday’s Labor election victory, in a boost to pollsters’ reputations after the industry-wide failure at the 2019 election.

Surveys measuring voter sentiment throughout the campaign pointed to a Labor win, with the polls tightening in the final week before Saturday’s election.

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New Zealand will push Anthony Albanese on ‘501’ deportation policy, Jacinda Ardern says

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Prime minister said it was helpful that new Australian leader had already acknowledged issues causing friction

New Zealand will continue to push the conversation on Australia’s “problematic” deportation policy with the incoming government under Labor leader Anthony Albanese, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said.

“There is obviously a really strong relationship, regardless of leader, regardless of party,” Ardern said at a post-cabinet briefing on Monday. “The very nature of New Zealand and Australia’s relationship is strong and enduring.”

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PM has ‘frank and very positive’ call with Johnson – as it happend

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Anthony Albanese has spoken to the British prime minister on his flight to the Quad meeting in Tokyo after being sworn in, along with four senior ministers; Monique Ryan says ‘work begins anew’ after Josh Frydenberg concedes; Dave Sharma concedes Wentworth; nation records at least 11 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

And lastly, Ryan is asked what her view will be if Peter Dutton wins leadership of the Liberal party:

From my point of view, I’m a sort of centrist politician and I have been elected in that way by the people of Kooyong.

Taking the Liberal party further to the right I don’t think would resonate well in Kooyong. And I think members of other electorates around Australia would have that concern as well.

I think that the population of Australia expects better from its government.

This is a government that hasn’t held women safe in its own workplace. It’s a government that has seen an increase in homelessness from women over 50.

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Former Victorian orphanage carer, 81, jailed for sexually abusing five boys

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William Parker Skelland abused children at Burwood boys’ home in 1973 and 1974

A former carer at a Victorian boys’ orphanage in the 1970s will spend at least four years in prison for sexually abusing five of the young children.

William Parker Skelland, 81, was living in the UK in 2019 when he was arrested for his crimes and extradited back to Australia to answer for them.

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NSW government told it cannot dock pay of MP charged with sexual abuse

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Former minister Gareth Ward, who has professed his innocence, has already been suspended from parliament

The New South Wales government has been told it cannot strip suspended MP Gareth Ward of his pay, staff or other entitlements without enacting new legislation, a step it should not take because it “may be vulnerable to legal challenge”.

Ward, the MP for Kiama, was suspended from the state’s parliament in March after he was charged over allegations of sexual abuse against a man and a 17-year-old boy. The suspension came after legal advice found the government could not expel Ward from the parliament.

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The election revealed a shift in climate sentiment – but what will it mean for policy?

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Labor’s climate plan is designed to limit the political risk of a scare campaign – but there are already calls for it to go beyond its headline commitments

It will take a while to untangle all the threads that led to Saturday’s extraordinary result, but there is little doubt this was the climate election Australians have long been told was coming.

A surge of Greens and Climate 200-backed teal independents turfed heartland Liberal MPs who were part of a government that claimed to be acting on emissions but wasn’t, pumped vast sums into fossil fuels and was considered a global blocker on addressing global heating.

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Lismore braces for more flooding amid storm warnings for south-west Western Australia

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Northern NSW continues to be hammered by rain and Queensland’s south-east back on flood watch

Lismore residents are being warned they could be hit with more floods as rain continues in northern New South Wales.

The region has already endured repeated severe flooding in recent months and the Bureau of Meteorology said more could be on the way after rain over the weekend.

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UN denounces ‘homophobic and racist’ reporting on monkeypox spread

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Some media portrayals of cases among African and LGBTI people fueling blame, agency says, as infections reported in Europe, US and Australia

The United Nations’ Aids agency has called some reporting on the monkeypox virus racist and homophobic, warning of exacerbating stigma and undermining the response to the growing outbreak.

UNAIDS said “a significant proportion” of recent monkeypox cases have been identified among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.

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World leaders respond to Anthony Albanese’s Australian election victory

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Pacific leaders welcome Labor’s plan for action on climate while one French minister says defeat of Scott Morrison ‘suits me very well’

World leaders have congratulated Anthony Albanese on his election victory in Australia, while former heads of government in the Pacific have urged him to “make a radical shift towards strong and urgent climate action”.

One French minister was barely able to conceal his glee at the Coalition’s loss, while Fiji welcomed Labor’s “plan to put climate first”.

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New Zealand woman held in Villawood detention centre found dead, detainees say

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Activists say woman’s death is an example of people with serious mental health problems being detained without adequate care

Advocates and detainees say a woman’s body was found at Villawood detention centre on Sunday morning.

The New Zealand woman was found dead about 10.45am, shortly after a room search had been conducted by Serco officers. She is believed to have killed herself.

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Australia’s rightwing government weaponised climate change – now it has faced its reckoning

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PM Scott Morrison has been dumped by electorate fed up with inaction on emissions and eager for change

When Scott Morrison won Australia’s federal election in 2019, it seemed like the country would never emerge from the climate wars that had begun a decade earlier.

Morrison had taken the prime ministership late in 2018 after conservatives in the ruling Liberal-National Coalition deposed Malcolm Turnbull, in part, for his attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia’s energy sector.

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PM-elect Albanese wants to ‘change the way politics works’ – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese to be sworn in ahead of Quad meeting; Scott Morrison praises ‘great foundation’ of church as speculation over next Liberal leader begins; Labor hopeful of forming majority government; nation records 20 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

That Paul Karp wields his words real good:

The Liberals flirted with turning the ABC coverage on blast on the big screen, but when Antony Green observed that he couldn’t see the Liberals winning more than 70 seats, suddenly the feed was cut in favour of soft aimless jazz, pervasive elevator music the soundtrack to attenuated disappointment.

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Labor victory means Murugappan family set to return home to Biloela

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After four years in immigration detention, the election would produce an all-or-nothing result for the Tamil asylum seekers

About 11pm on election night in the central Queensland town of Biloela, Angela Fredericks phoned her absent friend.

“Priya, you are coming home,” she said.

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Independent who beat Kristina Keneally in western Sydney seat says Labor was ‘arrogant’

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Incoming MP for Fowler Dai Le says decision to parachute Keneally into diverse electorate was a ‘slap in the face’ to locals

The independent candidate who defied a national swing towards Labor by defeating Kristina Keneally in the formerly safe seat of Fowler in Sydney’s south-west says the party was punished for its “arrogance” in parachuting the former NSW premier into the seat.

As vote counting continued on Sunday, the party’s abject showing in Fowler marked a stunning outlier to the national result.

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