Category Archives: Australia news

Modular homes on way to accommodate New South Wales flood victims

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More than a month after they were announced 2,000 temporary pod homes are being sent to flood-affected communities

Up to 2,000 modular homes will be sent to accommodate displaced flood victims in northern New South Wales, a month after the state government announced the measure.

The temporary modular “pods” will be rolled out on the Northern Rivers, with the first 25 recovery pods to be delivered to Ballina, followed by additional sites to be named across Tweed, Byron, Richmond Valley and Lismore in coming weeks.

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NSW Liberals should decide whether Katherine Deves is disendorsed, Marise Payne says

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Foreign minister says she has made it ‘explicitly clear’ she does not agree with comments made by Warringah candidate

Senior government frontbencher Marise Payne has distanced herself from the controversial Liberal candidate for the Sydney seat of Warringah, saying it is a matter for the party organisation whether Katherine Deves is disendorsed.

The foreign minister was pointed in her remarks on the range of captain’s picks overseen by Scott Morrison in lieu of normal preselection processes in New South Wales, telling the ABC’s Insiders program: “Some of them are fabulous candidates.”

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Dutch golden age painting worth up to $5m discovered at Blue Mountains property

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Experts say 400-year-old work is likely collaboration between Dutch master Willem Claesz Heda and his son

A 400-year-old “one in a million” Dutch painting worth up to $5m has been found at a property in the New South Wales Blue Mountains.

Called Still Life, the work was recently located at the National Trust of Australia-managed Woodford Academy during a restoration project.

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Western Australia plane crash: one dead and another injured after aircraft catches fire

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Plane crashed as pilot tried to land at East Kimberley regional airport in Kununurra

A passenger has died and a pilot was seriously injured after a charter plane crashed in Western Australia’s remote north.

WA police confirmed the male in his 50s lost consciousness during the rescue efforts and could not be revived.

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Scott Morrison backs Warringah candidate amid Liberal revolt – as it happened

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Prime minister under pressure as Liberals split over Katherine Deves’ candidacy; Anthony Albanese promises federal Icac within months. This blog is now closed

Victoria has recorded eight additional Covid-19 deaths overnight, with 408 people in hospital, 21 in the ICU and eight ventilated.

There were 9,559 new cases recorded.

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Scott Morrison faces Liberal mutiny over Warringah candidate Katherine Deves’ trans views

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NSW treasurer Matt Kean and long-time Liberal activist Walter Villatora call for Deves to be disendorsed

Scott Morrison is facing a mutiny over the Liberal party’s controversial candidate in Warringah, Katherine Deves, with intensifying calls for her to be dumped because of “hurtful and divisive” comments about transgender people.

Liberal moderates have been concerned for some time that Deves’ candidacy would prove damaging to the Liberal party’s standing with centre-right progressive voters in key metropolitan contests.

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AEC warns Australian political parties over ‘misleading’ postal vote applications

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Forms sent back via political parties can be used to harvest personal information about voters

The Australian Electoral Commission has written to political parties warning against distributing “potentially misleading” postal vote applications to residents.

Political parties have sent out forms to voters where they can register with the AEC to vote via mail. However, the forms are sent back via the political parties and can be used to harvest personal information about those voters to target later.

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Anthony Albanese says PM’s broken federal Icac promise ‘fails the laugh test’ as Chalmers defends Labor campaign

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Shadow treasurer says Labor ‘match-fit’ for campaign and denies first week was a ‘shitshow’

Anthony Albanese has attacked Scott Morrison for blaming a lack of Labor support as the reason he couldn’t legislate his proposed anti-corruption commission, saying the argument “fails the laugh test”, as the federal opposition defended their rocky start to the election campaign.

On Saturday, as Labor unveiled a commitment to legislate a national anti-corruption commission by the end of 2022 if elected, both the prime minister and opposition leader faced questions over their ideal model for an integrity body, with Albanese suggesting Labor’s version would be stronger than the Coalition’s proposal that was widely panned and opposed by some government MPs.

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Anthony Albanese commits to anti-corruption watchdog by end of 2022, if Labor wins election

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Scott Morrison under pressure over integrity commission failure and $500,000 payout to ex-ministerial staffer

Anthony Albanese says he will legislate a national anti-corruption commission by the end of 2022 if Labor wins the election.

Albanese’s commitment, to be confirmed on Saturday, follows Scott Morrison declaring this week he will only revive his government’s heavily criticised integrity commission proposal if Labor and the Senate are prepared to pass it unamended.

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More than $3bn of social housing sold by NSW government since Coalition took power

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Data also reveals the government has fallen well behind its own targets for new dwellings

The New South Wales government has sold off $3bn worth of social housing during its decade in power, while failing to meet its own targets for new properties.

New figures released through parliament this week show that since it was first elected in 2011, the Coalition has sold off 4,205 social housing properties across the state.

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George Christensen changes the dynamic for an already intense Senate race in Queensland

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Analysis: Plenty of high-profile candidates are chasing rightwing votes, but only one will likely get a Senate seat

Campbell Newman’s face is hard to miss. The most conspicuous figure in Queensland politics in a generation – the Liberal National party’s only state premier in more than 25 years – is, as the billboards say, back.

The message to commuters who recognise his mug is simple: “New party, same man.”

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Easter bag hunt: travellers left without luggage as airport staff shortages bite

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Qantas apologises as passengers told they could be without bags for days

Travellers visiting friends and family for the Easter long weekend could be left without their luggage for days as airlines and airports continue to struggle with staff shortages.

The busy holiday travel period combined with Covid isolation orders and a workforce cut and outsourced during the pandemic has resulted in chaotic scenes at airports across Australia, and many passengers arriving at their destinations without their luggage.

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Another election year leads to another Victorian debate about the East West Link proposal

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Analysis: Like clockwork, an announcement is made to revive the ‘zombie’ toll road project

Almost seven years after Victoria’s Labor government scrapped a billion-dollar contract to construct the East West Link, the project – once dubbed a “zombie” by the state’s treasurer – refuses to die.

The federal Coalition has previously pushed the case for the project. But this time, it was the state opposition reviving it by announcing it would build the underground tunnel to connect Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway to CityLink if was elected at the November election.

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Pork this way: which electorates have been promised the most in the election campaign?

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On a per-voter basis, Coalition-held seats of Bass in Tasmania and Canning in WA given biggest spending commitments so far

Voters in the Tasmanian marginal seat of Bass are the most spoilt in the country, with each voter promised the equivalent of almost $6,000 in spending commitments in the opening stages of the election campaign.

In the first week of the six-week campaign, almost $500m has been pledged by both major party leaders as they crisscross the country. The focus is on a handful of marginal seats that will decide the election.

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Australia news live updates: One Nation dumps Brisbane candidate; Anthony Albanese and Jenny Morrison attend same Easter service; 26 Covid deaths

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Rebecca Lloyd reportedly ditched from One Nation because she refused to work with party leaders; airport staff shortages cause baggage issues; more aged care deaths in 2022 than first two pandemic years combined; campaign trail ‘truce’ for Easter weekend; NSW records 16 Covid deaths, Victoria records seven deaths; Queensland records two deaths; first election debate confirmed for 20 April. Follow all today’s news

NSW has recorded 16 Covid deaths and more than 15,000 cases.

Queues are so far moving faster than expected at major airports, after a week of huge delays. There were some concerns about another chaotic day at the airport on Good Friday. About 80,000 passengers were due to travel through Sydney airport alone.

Queues are moving well at Sydney airport even as hundreds of people fill the country’s busiest airport as they head out for Easter holidays.

Airports around the country will remain busy over the break and school holiday period.

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Western Australian Liberal senator Ben Small resigns over dual citizenship

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Small breached section 44 of the Australian constitution by also holding New Zealand citizenship, but still plans to contest the upcoming election

Western Australian Liberal senator Ben Small has been forced to resign due to his New Zealand heritage, the latest victim of the section 44 constitutional requirements, but has pledged to stand again at the looming election.

Small released a statement on Friday saying he had written to the Senate president to advise him he was resigning as a senator for WA.

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Liberal candidates accused of ‘plagiarising’ South Australian Labor premier’s campaign ads

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ALP claims Michael Sukkar and Rachel Swift both imitated Peter Malinauskas’s ad’s distinctive style from SA state election

Two Liberal party candidates for the forthcoming federal election have been accused of “plagiarising” ads from the recent successful state campaign of South Australia’s Labor premier, Peter Malinauskas.

Assistant treasurer and current member for Deakin in Melbourne, Michael Sukkar, and Liberal candidate for Boothby in Adelaide, Rachel Swift, are both alleged to have imitated the distinctive visual style and script of Malinauskas’ ad, released in January, for their federal election campaigns.

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Australia on alert after new Omicron XE Covid variant found in NSW

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The combination of BA.2 and BA.1 is thought to be highly contagious and comes as mandatory negative Covid tests for travellers to Australia is scrapped

Health authorities are urging caution after the emergence of a hybrid Omicron variant of Covid-19 in Australia.

The recombinant variant, known as XE, is a combination of BA.2 – “stealth Omicron” – and BA.1 – the original and highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.

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‘Massive policy failure’: retired judges blast Morrison’s broken promise on federal Icac

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Former supreme court judge Anthony Whealy says Coalition’s explanation for not legislating a promised anti-corruption commission is ‘spurious’

Retired judges have criticised the Morrison government’s broken promise on the federal anti-corruption commission as a “massive policy failure”, saying the Coalition’s explanation for walking away from the pledge was “spurious”.

The Coalition is under pressure over its failure to introduce legislation establishing its proposed anti-corruption commission, despite promising to do so prior to the last election.

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Cleary deals set Panthers up for long-term success

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With five-year contract extensions to keep them at Penrith until 2027, Nathan and Ivan Cleary can build the dynasty their club has always craved

Penrith’s ultimate successes have, historically, been fleeting. Not this time. The signing of star halfback Nathan Cleary and coach Ivan Cleary to long-term deals has set the Panthers up for sustainable security at the top of the premiership ladder. This may not be Melbourne Storm longevity but it is hard to see Penrith missing out on the top four anytime in the 2020s now the Clearys have locked themselves in as centrepieces.

Amid a great deal of controversy in 2019, Nathan Cleary was reunited with his father Ivan, who left the Wests Tigers in acrimonious circumstances to return to Penrith for his second stint as head coach. It led to Phil Gould’s departure as Penrith’s executive general manager and left a great deal of angst among the Wests Tigers faithful that the driver of the bus had ditched the joint. It did net a remarkable third premiership for the Panthers last year though, the golden generation realising their potential.

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