Category Archives: Australia news

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

Posted on by

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.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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%.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by
  • 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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Wet weather system could cause flash flooding in Queensland and prolonged rain in Sydney, BoM says

Posted on by

Heavy rain and thunderstorms pose flood risk for southern Queensland’s already saturated catchments

Heavy rain over large swathes of Queensland this week could spark flash flooding, with the same wet weather system bringing less intense but prolonged showers to Sydney for up to five days.

The Bureau of Meteorology has said western and inland parts of Queensland, as well as the tropical far north, will receive the most rain. Totals could reach 250mm in some areas and pose a prolonged flood risk for areas of the state that are already on flood watch, particularly in the south.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Labor to announce scholarship plan for high-achieving students to become teachers

Posted on by

Policy will aim to double number of high achievers studying education and include places for qualified professionals to retrain

High-achieving students who want to become teachers will be given at least $10,000 a year to study education under a Labor plan to improve teacher quality.

Under the policy, to be announced on Monday, 5,000 students with an Atar of 80 or more will receive the scholarship to study an education degree, with an extra $2,000 bonus a year for those who teach in a regional area.

Continue reading...

Melbourne boxer convicted of 2005 murder launches new appeal

Posted on by

Khalid Baker, who spent 13 years in prison, is arguing an acquitted co-accused was responsible for man’s death at party

A Melbourne man convicted of murder more than a decade ago is launching a new appeal, arguing that a co-accused who was acquitted was responsible for the death and has confirmed he was not involved.

Khalid Baker’s lawyers will argue this week that fresh and compelling evidence shows he has been the victim of a substantial miscarriage of justice and his conviction must be overturned.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Federal election 2022 live: Morrison pressed on protections for gay students; Albanese says Labor will match Coalition’s IVF policy

Posted on by

Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese will square off in second leaders’ debate to be broadcast on Channel Nine; prime minister questioned on religious discrimination act; Opposition leader says Labor will match Coalition’s $53m IVF pledge; NSW records six Covid deaths, Victoria four, Qld two and WA one. Follow all the day’s news

Plibersek is asked about the proposed stage three tax cuts that Labor has supported and which will lead to superannuation changes that will benefit men. She says it is something Labor will look at in government.

What makes a difference to the superannuation pay gap: when we invest more than $95bn, when we make child care cheaper, that allows those women who have been locked out of work, because it is too expensive – they actually lose money by working day four or day five in a week. They can earn more, have less time out of paid work, they can contribute to their own superannuation when they get back to work more easily.

As for the paid parental leave superannuation, it is something that we would look at in government. It is something that we would love to do when we can afford to.

Continue reading...

LNP candidate in Queensland referred to federal police for allegedly falsifying address

Posted on by

AEC says it was concerned Vivian Lobo provided false address in enrolment and nomination for marginal seat of Lilley

The Liberal National candidate running in the ultra-marginal Queensland seat of Lilley has been referred to the Australian Federal Police amid allegations he provided a false residential address to the Australian Electoral Commission.

Labor MP Anika Wells on Friday called on the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to “disavow” Vivian Lobo after the Australian newspaper reported he had provided “false evidence” to the AEC when he claimed to live in the inner Brisbane electorate.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Endangered tree seedlings planted in secret locations on NSW north coast

Posted on by

Seeds from nightcap oak trees were collected and propagated after black summer bushfires destroyed or damaged 20% of the population

Seedlings of an endangered tree are being planted in secret locations on the New South Wales north coast in an attempt to save the species after devastating bushfires.

The critically endangered nightcap oak trees date back to the Gondwana supercontinent era and can grow up to 40 metres tall, but are only found in northern NSW.

Continue reading...