Category Archives: Australia news

Australia beat India by six wickets: ICC Women’s World Cup – as it happened

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Tournament favourites chase down a World Cup-record 278 for victory, their fifth out of five in this year’s event

4th over: India 15-1 (Yastika Bhatia 2, Shafali Verma 1)

Brown looks to make up for her ordinary first over and she does immediately, with the big wicket of Mandhana, bringing Yastika Bhatia to the crease. Bhatia uses the first ball to get her eye in, before a well run two off the next ball to get off the mark quickly. Brown gives away the first extra of the match with a wide, followed by a dot ball and then another wide. This has shades of Australia’s series against India late last year when they just couldn’t stop bowling wides. Hopefully Brown has got that out of her system now.

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New Covid case numbers across Australia rise by 37% in a week as Omicron subvariant takes hold

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Australia records 28 Covid-related deaths, with 12 in NSW, 10 in Queensland, four in Western Australia and two in Victoria

The number of new Covid infections across Australia has risen by 37% in a week, linked to the more transmissible BA.2 subvariant of Omicron.

Australia has recorded 295,146 new Covid-19 cases in the past week, surging by more than a third compared with 215,701 cases the previous week, according to data from the tracking site Covid Live.

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Anthony Albanese says Kimberley Kitching never complained of bullying to him and furore ‘not constructive’

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Labor leader says it is ‘a fact’ that he never received a bullying complaint from Kitching before she died

The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, says the late senator Kimberley Kitching never raised complaints of bullying with him as he labelled political debate about her death not constructive.

Reports have emerged about the stress Kitching had been under within her own party before her death from a suspected heart attack, with Labor senators Kristina Keneally, Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher named in media reports as having ostracised her.

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Fans remain at fever pitch as Buddy closes on 1000 goals in Swans win

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Lance Franklin’s quest to become just the sixth VFL/AFL player to kick 1000 career goals must wait another week

Lance Franklin’s bid to become just the sixth VFL/AFL player to kick 1000 career goals will have to wait at least another six days after the Sydney superstar was held to just one major against GWS.

Franklin entered Saturday’s match sitting on 995 goals, and he got off the mark with a goal at the 10-minute mark of the second term. But he couldn’t add to the tally from there, finishing the match with one goal to show from his eight disposals.

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Josh Frydenberg open to intervening in insurance market as climate change pushes up premiums

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Treasurer says he’s conscious premiums too high for many people in disaster-prone areas, but says more work needed on a proposal to extend reinsurance scheme

Josh Frydenberg has flagged he is “open” to further market interventions making insurance more affordable, but says more preparatory work will need to be done before the Morrison government would extend its $10bn cyclone reinsurance pool in northern Australia to cover more natural disasters.

In an interview with Guardian Australia ahead of the budget on 29 March, the treasurer said he was conscious that a changing climate rendered insurance problematic in some parts of Australia.

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Victorian politics of paid sick leave is very different to developer levies

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Daniel Andrews was gearing up for a fight with lobby groups, but the main prize was in the electorate

For the second time in a month the Andrews government this week unfurled a big social reform to be funded by a levy on business.

And for the second time in a month, it provoked outrage from the usual quarters, including the state opposition, the federal government and industry groups.

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Against the foil of the Morrison government, Dominic Perrottet’s flood response has been pragmatic

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The NSW government knows the more it is held up against the Coalition in Canberra, the better it looks despite its own shortcomings

It’s hard to imagine many inside the New South Wales government were particularly upset with veteran Nationals backbencher Geoff Provest when he aimed both barrels at the prime minister over his response to the state’s flood disaster this week.

Hardly the state government’s most prominent attack dog, Provest did not miss in his assessment of Scott Morrison after his north coast electorate of Tweed was inexplicably excluded from extra disaster funding announced by the prime minister last week.

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‘Hard to read’: Labor is clear favourite in South Australia’s election – but local issues muddy the waters

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The opposition is ahead in the polls. Whether that translates into a win – and what it would mean for the federal election – isn’t certain

State elections are not always of great interest to people beyond the borders, but today’s South Australian poll is getting more attention than usual as it comes in the lead-up to the May federal election.

The latest poll shows Labor poised to tip out the Marshall government after just one term in power. It shows a swing of about 8%, putting Labor ahead 56 to 44 on a two-party preferred score.

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Disability carer sentenced to six years’ jail over death of Ann Marie Smith due to criminal neglect

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Rosa Maria Maione pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the 2020 death of Adelaide woman who had cerebral palsy

The carer who admitted the manslaughter of Adelaide woman Ann Marie Smith, who had cerebral palsy, has been jailed for at least five years and three months for her criminal neglect.

Sentencing Rosa Maria Maione in the Supreme Court, Justice Anne Bampton said the 70-year-old was grossly negligent, with her care for Smith falling well short of the standard expected.

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Farmers welcome provision of extra flood relief funding in NSW – as it happened

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Inquest into death of Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker to start in September; call for inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women; advice for asthma sufferers during flood clean-up; at least 26 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is on the telly now (hope he’s saving some juicy bits for his speech later). He’s talking about this idea of returning to some sort of pre-Covid fiscal world. He says:

As you know, we recalibrated our budget strategy when the pandemic first hit and we needed to do that to ensure there was sufficient economic support with programs like jobkeeper, the cash flow boosts, the $750 payments to pensioners, carer, and those on income support. That helped stabilise the economy by opening up the purse strings. Now that the recovery is well underway and the unemployment rate is down to a 14-year low of 4%, it is time to move to the next phase of the budget strategy and that means stabilising debt and then reducing debt as a proportion of the overall economy, and ending those crisis-level, emergency economic support programs.

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‘Obsessed by coal’: former Queensland LNP minister hits out at Morrison government

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Bundaberg mayor Jack Dempsey says voters in his region ‘oppose coal’ and want no new mines

Bundaberg mayor and former Queensland LNP minister Jack Dempsey has described the Morrison government as being “obsessed by coal” and out of step with almost everybody on the climate crisis “except the big polluters”.

Dempsey also alleged federal resources minister and member for Hinkler, Keith Pitt, who has strongly advocated for the coal industry, was out of step with his electorate, which stretches from Hervey Bay to Bundaberg – an area he called the “heartland of Queensland”.

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Motor homes for flood-affected Lismore residents empty while more temporary housing yet to arrive

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Exclusive: Linen and water sources have not been organised for the homes, leaving locals waiting in evacuation centres

Motor homes intended for Lismore residents whose houses were inundated in this month’s floods are lying empty because linen and water sources have not been organised, while housing “pods” promised by the New South Wales government are yet to materialise.

The measures were announced as part of a temporary housing package last week, but three weeks on from the flood, thousands of locals are still living in evacuation centres due to the lacklustre speed of official support.

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Defence personnel not allowed to speak about climate ‘unless they go through Peter Dutton’s office’

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Former defence force chief Chris Barrie says it’s a disgrace that we’ve made a left-right issue out of global heating and its impacts

The former chief of the defence force Chris Barrie says defence personnel are not allowed to speak out on the national strategic threats posed by climate change without prior approval from Peter Dutton’s office.

The suggestion was immediately rejected by the defence minister’s office. Asked for comment, the minister’s spokesperson said: “That is not correct.”

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‘Just not the right time’: Victoria urged to keep mask rules for key workers

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Epidemiologists say calls by business to relax mask rules as case numbers escalate is ‘down the rabbit hole thinking’

Victorian business leaders pushing to scrap mask mandates for hospitality and retail workers are “clearly not following the trend” in rising cases, according to epidemiologists who say now is not the time to relax rules.

The state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, on Thursday rejected a push from the Australian Hotels Association, the Australian ­Retailers Association and the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry who told the Herald Sun they wanted national consistency on mask mandates and warned workers could leave the sectors for other jobs.

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Josh Frydenberg announces ‘targeted’ cost of living measures ahead of federal budget

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Treasurer says ‘crisis level’ spending must stop amid Australia’s improving economic conditions

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, says improved economic conditions will allow the government to deliver a “targeted” cost of living package in this month’s budget, while gradually improving the budget bottom line.

In the traditional pre-budget speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday, Frydenberg will set out how the 29 March budget will mark a return to normal budget settings as Australia emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, warning that “crisis level” spending must stop.

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Australia live news updates: call for inquiry into NSW flood response; at least 22 Covid deaths recorded

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AFLW final postponed after Covid outbreak; NSW Labor calls for inquiry into flood response; Ukraine embassy calls for Australian sanctions against two Russian oligarchs; at least 22 Covid deaths recorded. Follow all the day’s news live

From senior economics reporter Ben Butler and foreign affairs and defence correspondent Daniel Hurst:

Ukraine’s embassy in Canberra has joined calls for the Australian government to sanction two Russian oligarchs who have assets here, Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg.

The government of Ukraine is grateful to the government of Australia for its proactive and extensive sanctions policy against Russia, which is the biggest among the Indo-Pacific countries ...

We hope that those Russian oligarchs will be included in the next round of sanctions.

Vekselberg has already been sanctioned by the British and US governments. It’s curious that the Australian government has not yet followed suit given its claims of being in lockstep with the US and UK.

Vekselberg’s interest in Falcon pre-dates Origin’s farm-in agreement agreed in 2015, so Origin was entered into the joint venture with eyes wide open.

We certainly have had very limited capability to conduct experimental fires under extreme conditions. Nobody in their right mind is going to give us the go ahead to light a fire on a Black Saturday-type day ...

This lab means we’ll be able to study particular aspects of fire behaviour under the extreme conditions that are more likely to occur under climate change.

By using the data collected by the pyrotron, our prediction tools become more accurate. And that means better decision making about where firefighters can safely go, what firefighting strategies to use, and also improved emergency warnings for communities.

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Australia’s unemployment rate falls to 4% – the lowest since 2008

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The jobless rate for women fell to the lowest rate since May 1974 at 3.8%, as the economy added a net 77,400 jobs in February

Australia’s jobless rate sank to a new 13-year low last month with a big rise in full-time positions, as the economy shrugged off more of the Omicron Covid disruptions.

The country’s unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 4.0% in February, compared with 4.2% in January. That’s the lowest rate since August 2008, the ABS said.

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Bruno Fornaroli named in Socceroos squad for crucial World Cup qualifiers

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  • Uruguay-born striker could debut for Australia at age of 34
  • Atkinson, D’Agostino in squad to face Japan and Saudi Arabia

Bruno Fornaroli is in the running to make an unlikely Socceroos debut at the age of 34, after the Uruguay-born striker was included in an extended squad for Australia’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Fornaroli, who was recently granted Australian citizenship after arriving in the country in 2015, has opted to switch his national allegiance in the twilight of his career, having already represented Uruguay’s under-17 youth team in 2003.

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Australian Human Rights Commission to slash staff after budget cuts and surge in workload

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Agency says one in three jobs will be lost and warns current funding is insufficient for it to perform its statutory function

One in three jobs will be slashed at the Australian Human Rights Commission as a record number of complaints and low base funding take their toll.

The human rights agency has issued a blunt warning that its current funding “does not provide us with the resources required to perform our statutory functions”.

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Putin-linked Russian oligarchs with Australian assets escape Morrison government sanctions

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Transparency advocates ‘can’t make sense’ of decision to exclude resource industry figures from sanctions

The Morrison government is facing questions over why it has not included two Russian oligarchs, who have assets in Australia, among those it has imposed sanctions against over the invasion of Ukraine.

Oleg Deripaska, who has a stake in an alumina refinery in Gladstone run by Rio Tinto, and Viktor Vekselberg, who has an interest in a gas project in the Beetaloo Basin, were not among 41 oligarchs and family members Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade hit with sanctions on Monday.

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