Warnings come as extreme heat kills more people than all other natural disasters in Australia combined
Karen Thorne’s rental home heats up as soon as the morning sun hits her east-facing bedroom in the Sydney suburb of Rosemeadow.
“I could wake up at 8am to 28-degree heat in there,” Thorne said. “The heat is what actually wakes me up.”
Continue reading...Melbourne toppled the Western Bulldogs again, winning a topsy-turvy grand-final rematch by 26 points in the AFL season-opener at the MCG. The Demons stormed out of the blocks on a night when they unfurled their first premiership flag in 57 years, with the first-half playing out in eerily similar circumstances to last year’s decider.
After booting the first four goals of the match, Melbourne then had to withstand a blistering surge as the Bulldogs piled on the next eight majors. But just as they did several times in 2021, the Demons’ stars turned the game around in quick fashion to kick off their premiership defence in style, prevailing 14.13 (97) to 11.5 (71) in front of 58,002 fans.
Continue reading...Proposals included a ban on transgender school students from confidentially coming out and restrictions on sports and toilets
The New South Wales government has confirmed it will not support One Nation MP Mark Latham’s controversial bill to ban discussion of gender diversity in classrooms, saying it could cause “targeted discrimination” against trans students.
First put forward in 2020, Latham’s “Parental Rights” bill sought to prohibit teachers from discussing “the ideology of gender fluidity to children in schools” and prevent schools from supporting transgender students without parental consent.
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Continue reading...NT police union says the force is investigating several matters unrelated to the shooting of Kumanjayi Walker
Constable Zachary Rolfe is on leave as the Northern Territory police investigates internal disciplinary matters, only days after he was found not guilty of murdering Kumanjayi Walker.
Rolfe, 30, has been told to take leave as the force investigates several internal matters unrelated to the shooting, Guardian Australia has confirmed. It is unclear what those investigations concern.
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Continue reading...Man killed while trying to help friends as sudden downpour damaged roads and footpaths
Broken Hill, in far western New South Wales, has been left reeling after record rainfall led to a drowning death and damaged roads and footpaths.
The State Emergency Service was called to several flood rescues after up to 140mm of rain fell on parts of the city on Tuesday afternoon.
Continue reading...PM says Australia ‘will move in lockstep’ with allies on sanctioning the country’s largest trading partner
Scott Morrison has left the door open to introducing sanctions against China, Australia’s largest trading partner, if Chinese president Xi Jinping’s regime were to provide military equipment to Russia.
The prime minister said his government would move in lockstep with its allies and partners in response to what he called Beijing’s “chilling silence” on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said any move by China to arm Russia would be “an abomination”.
Continue reading...The move would allow for cheaper generic versions to be manufactured and distributed among developing nations faster
Global powers have inched closer to an agreement to waive patents for Covid-19 vaccines, a move that would allow for cheaper generic versions to be manufactured and distributed among developing nations faster.
A leaked document, seen by the Guardian, reveals details of a compromise struck between the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa that would end a deadlock over an intellectual property waiver, 18 months after the proposal was first taken to the World Trade Organization.
Continue reading...PM highlights China’s ‘chilling silence’ on Russian invasion as Labor says China has ‘responsibility’ to call out Putin’s actions; NSW Health confirms seventh case of Japanese encephalitis; man in court over Sydney boarding house fire; Coalition to spend $243m on four mining projects; a man has died in Broken Hill after driving his ute into flood waters; nation records at least 17 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed
NSW Health has added the results from 10,000 additional positive rapid antigen tests to its official numbers after a data error meant they were left out.
The results were registered between Sunday 13 March and Monday 14 March, with NSW Health warning the numbers will “inflate the cases being reported today for the 24 hours to 4pm yesterday (Tuesday)”.
News Corp paper published multiple negative stories about Kumanjayi Walker and body camera footage from night he was killed
Several high-profile Indigenous journalists have condemned the Australian newspaper’s coverage as unethical, victim-blaming and insensitive following the acquittal of Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe in relation to the shooting death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker.
A jury acquitted Rolfe of murder and related charges on Friday over the 2019 shooting of Walker in Yuendumu. The court heard Walker was shot three times, with Rolfe arguing he acted to protect his and his partner’s safety.
Continue reading...Perth Glory coach Richard Garcia predicts Bruno Fornaroli will become an asset for the Socceroos, with the Uruguayan set for a call-up for Australia’s crucial World Cup qualifiers. Fornaroli played for Uruguay’s under-17 youth team in 2003, but a change in the Fifa eligibility rules in 2020 means the 34-year-old is now eligible to represent the Socceroos.
Football Australia on Tuesday refused to confirm the star striker’s inclusion, but he is expected to be named on Wednesday morning in Graham Arnold’s extended squad for the crunch matches against Japan and Saudi Arabia this month.
Continue reading...Palaszczuk government to support purchases of EVs cheaper than $58,000 and invest $10m in charging stations
The Queensland government will pay a $3,000 subsidy to electric vehicle buyers and build new charging stations to incentivise take-up, under a new strategy to be announced on Wednesday.
The 10-year strategy includes measures the state says will help to drive down emissions and ultimately help Queensland meet its net zero commitment by 2050.
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Continue reading...Victoria also recorded its highest daily coronavirus case total in five weeks as the more-infectious Omicron subvariant spreads
Covid-19 cases have spiked dramatically in New South Wales, with 30,402 new infections recorded, but authorities say it’s at least partly due to a data glitch.
NSW Health says about 10,000 positive rapid antigen tests registered between Sunday and Monday are included in figures released on Wednesday due to a data processing problem.
Continue reading...A 45-year-old man has been charged with three counts of murder after the fire in the inner west suburb of Newtown on Tuesday
A man has been charged with three counts of murder following a fire in a boarding house in Newtown in New South Wales on Tuesday.
The 45-year-old man, who police say was a former resident of the boarding house, was also charged with one count of destroying or damaging property by fire or explosive.
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Continue reading...United States Studies Centre finds Americans are not convinced the Indo-Pacific should be a priority region for the Biden administration
Voters in the US are not convinced the Indo-Pacific should be a priority region for the Biden administration, and isolationist sentiment in the country continues to rise, according to a new analysis by the United States Studies Centre.
The new USSC State of the United States report, to be launched in Canberra at an event on Wednesday with the defence minister, Peter Dutton, Labor frontbenchers Penny Wong and Brendan O’Connor, and US congressman Joe Courtney, finds support for the US alliance with Canberra remains strong.
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Continue reading...Infighting over preselecting candidates for the federal election previously led to a special committee briefly taking over the NSW branch
The Liberal party’s infighting over preselecting federal candidates is heading back to the supreme court after a member of the NSW state executive began fresh legal action on Tuesday, challenging the federal party’s intervention to save two ministers and a sitting MP.
A member of the NSW state executive, Matthew Camenzuli, has filed in the NSW supreme court a challenge to the endorsement of the sitting MPs, which was achieved last week by a brief takeover of the troubled NSW branch by a special committee appointed by the federal party.
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Continue reading...Police hold fears for a fourth person still missing after an explosion in Newtown that officers believe was deliberate
A murder investigation is under way following the deaths of three people in a “cramped, crowded” and “dilapidated” boarding house fire in Sydney’s inner west.
Emergency services were called to the fire at the corner of Probert and Albemarle streets in Newtown about 1am on Tuesday after reports of a loud explosion. Three people have been confirmed dead, and police hold fears for a fourth person who is still missing.
Continue reading...Penny Mackieson bonded for two decades with a woman she was told put her up for adoption
Penny Mackieson finally has the name that feels right to her, nearly 60 years after she was inadvertently swapped with another baby when the infants were placed for adoption.
After mustering the courage to contact the person that records indicated was her biological mother, the Melbourne woman spent two decades getting to know and love the woman and her family.
Continue reading...RTBU secretary says union will take industrial action if government does not provide free fares ‘as a way of saying sorry’
The long-running dispute between the New South Wales rail union and the state government again threatens to shut down Sydney’s train network, as the transport minister David Elliott accused workers of “industrial bastardy” for the second time in three weeks over planned industrial action.
On Tuesday the secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, Alex Claassens, threatened to use industrial action to force the government to offer free fares to commuters, as it continues to ramp up its long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
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Continue reading...Hello and welcome to the Basin Reserve in Wellington (by way of a sofa in South London) for this OBO of Australia v West Indies. This is the 14th match of what is proving to be a thrilling 2022 Women’s World Cup. The big question is, can anyone stop the Aussie juggernaut?
Meg Lanning’s side have swept away all comers in this format for the past few years and are three from three so far in the tournament, sitting satisfyingly atop the table whilst those below grapple it out.
Continue reading...Search for owner after bodies found in Newtown boarding house fire police believe was ‘maliciously lit’; cruise ship ban to end on April 17; Victorian health minister says Omicron subvariant ‘slowly asserting itself’; nation records at least 24 Covid deaths with 10 in Queensland. This blog is now closed
The government has decided to withdraw a women’s network logo that was widely mocked online for its phallic shape.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet issued a statement today saying the logo had been removed from its website “pending consultation with staff”:
The women’s network logo retained a ‘W’ icon which staff had been using for a number of years.
The rebrand was completed internally, using existing resources, and designs were consulted on widely. No external providers were engaged for this work.
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