Andrew McDonald will be named as Australia’s men’s cricket coach after impressing as an interim boss during the tour of Pakistan.
The former Test allrounder has only strengthened his bonds with a playing group that was desperate for change. McDonald, 40, could be confirmed as Australia’s full-time coach as soon as Wednesday.
Continue reading...Bill that includes Northern Territory infrastructure funding did not pass before parliament was dissolved
Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has wrongly claimed that an infrastructure package that includes funding for a second port in Darwin has already been legislated, despite the budget bills lapsing when parliament was dissolved on Monday.
Speaking in the Northern Territory on Tuesday, where the Coalition is targeting two Labor-held seats, Joyce was talking up the government’s regional funding commitments, including $2.6bn allocated to the NT through a regional development plan announced on budget night.
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Continue reading...Dangerous pests forming floating rafts with their bodies to survive in Queensland after floods
Invasive fire ants have used recent flooding in Queensland to expand their Australian invasion, teaming up and forming floating rafts with their bodies to allow them to survive for weeks at a time.
Eradication officers in Queensland have captured photos of the dangerous ants forming the rafts in flood waters.
Continue reading...Scientists say bleaching could be ‘canary in the coalmine’ for climate impact as eastern Tasmanian sea temperatures rise
Bleaching in marine sponges in temperate waters off Tasmania’s east coast has been observed for the first time, with scientists warning the discovery could be an indicator of climate change in deeper reef systems.
Researchers at the University of Tasmania’s Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies used seafloor surveys to discover the bleaching of cup sponges in the Flinders commonwealth marine reserve after heatwave events.
Continue reading...Tuesday: Austrian chancellor becomes first western leader to hold face-to-face talks with Russian president since invasion of Ukraine. Plus: Australia’s top travel experiences
Good morning. Putin meets Austria’s chancellor in his first face-to-face visit with a western leader since the invasion of Ukraine. Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese will be out campaigning in marginal seats, with jobs and healthcare on the election agenda. And Lonely Planet selects Australia’s top travel experiences.
The last Ukrainian soldiers defending Mariupol said they were “running out of ammunition” on Monday and expected to be killed or taken prisoner very soon by Russian forces surrounding the city. Writing on Facebook, the 36th brigade said its 47-day defence of Mariupol was coming to a tragic conclusion. “We were bombed from airplanes and shot at by artillery and tanks. We have been doing everything possible and impossible,” it said. Meanwhile, Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, said he told Vladimir Putin that “all those responsible” for war crimes must be brought to justice and warned that western sanctions would intensify as long as people kept dying in Ukraine. After becoming the first western leader to hold face-to-face talks with the Russian president since the invasion, Nehammer said his trip to Moscow was not “a visit of friendship” and that the two had had a “direct, open and hard” conversation.
Continue reading...Disability royal commission told low rates of pay are calculated using tool said to measure ‘productivity’ of employees
People with disability are packing boxes, cleaning and gardening for legal pay rates as low as $2.27 an hour, a royal commission has heard.
The disability royal commission is holding a three-day hearing into Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs), which provide supported employment to people with moderate to severe disabilities.
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Continue reading...Freefall ride appears to have started while the four-year-old boy’s harness remained above his head
Organisers of Sydney’s Royal Easter Show have shut down a ride and launched an investigation after a four-year-old boy was not secured to his seat.
An image posted to social media appears to show the freefall ride had begun with a young boy on the end seat sitting with his harness still raised above his head, while other riders’ harnesses were locked down. The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon.
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Continue reading...The PM campaigned in Gilmore in NSW, while Labor leader is in Bass in Tasmania; Tanya Plibersek defends Anthony Albanese after opposition leader addresses his rates stumble; phone voting available for people in isolation on election day; NSW reports three Covid deaths and Victoria one. This blog is now closed
Scott Morrison just appeared on ABC breakfast TV, where he was asked about his relationship with the Liberal candidate for Gilmore, Andrew Constance.
Q: Andrew Constance said that you got the welcome that you deserved [in the region after the bushfires]. Emotions are still running deep in the bushfire-affected communities. Are you concerned about that being repeated today?
With Andrew Constance being part of my team and choosing to be part of that team, I think that that addresses it. Andrew and I spoke not long after the terrible experiences that particularly he and others and so many went through, and we worked the issue. We ensured that we addressed thing like small business payment and we got the money on the grouped and supported people in the areas that the federal government were responsible for. And I really thank Andrew for the way that we came together and really started to work together to address those issues. He’s a fine advocate for this part of Australia on the south coast of New South Wales.
He’s demonstrated that time again. And the fact that he wants to be part of my team and is running here as our Liberal candidate in Gilmore, I think that that addresses those issues fairly, squarely, that we’ve actually addressed the short comings that he was outlining at the time and we’ve gone forward with a strong plan to ensure that we’re providing that support. Not just in relation to the fires, but in relation to other natural disasters. And we’ve seen so many of those over the last three years.
Continue reading...Soldier refused to answer questions about one mission on grounds of self-incrimination on offence of ‘the most serious nature’
An SAS soldier who refused to answer questions about an alleged unlawful killing in Afghanistan has told the federal court he felt threatened to testify by the newspapers being sued by Ben Roberts-Smith.
The soldier, anonymised before the court as Person 56, refused to answer questions about a 2012 mission to Fasil, where, it has previously been alleged, he and Roberts-Smith were responsible for the unlawful killing of two Afghan men who had been taken prisoner from a vehicle.
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Continue reading...Labor leader makes mistake on day one of campaign as Scott Morrison embraces former NSW MP who said PM ‘got the welcome he deserved’ during bushfires
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, says he “accepts responsibility” for a gaffe on the first day of the federal election campaign when he couldn’t state the national unemployment figure or the official cash rate.
Albanese was asked on multiple occasions if he knew the figures during a press conference in the marginal seat of Bass in Tasmania at the start of the six-week campaign.
Continue reading...Coalition and finance remain tight-lipped on payout to Tudge’s former staffer, while PM says Tudge remains in cabinet
The Coalition has dodged questions about a $500,000 payout made to Alan Tudge’s former staffer Rachelle Miller, with senior ministers and the finance department refusing to comment amid controversy over the education minister’s ongoing role in federal cabinet.
Tudge is currently campaigning as a backbencher for his suburban Melbourne seat of Aston, but continues to be dogged by questions about his political future and his relationship with Miller. His former media adviser alleged he had been emotionally, and on one occasion, physically abusive to her while they were in a relationship in 2017. Tudge denies the allegations. He stood aside from his ministerial position on 2 December while an independent investigation was conducted into possible breaches of ministerial standards.
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Continue reading...Man applied to Australian government for act of grace payment over Mosul strike targeting Islamic State in 2017
An Iraqi man who alleges 35 family members were killed when an Australian airstrike targeting Islamic State instead obliterated a house where civilians were sheltering has been denied a compensation payment by the federal government.
The man, who did not wish to be identified, applied for what is known as an act of grace payment from the Department of Finance last year, arguing that there was strong evidence the Australian Defence Force dropped the bomb in 2017 as part of a series of airstrikes in Mosul by the coalition fighting IS.
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Continue reading...Insufficient accomodation and government support spark calls for better resourcing and planning in disaster responses
After being evicted from her short-term accommodation to make way for tourists, flood victim Margaret was left with nowhere else to go.
“I would have been homeless, living out of my car with two dogs,” the 79-year-old said.
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Continue reading...Labor told it needs to ‘find a way to reconnect with Queenslanders’, where the Liberal party holds 23 of the state’s 30 seats
Scott Morrison largely had Queensland to thank for his “miracle” 2019 election, with the party now heading into the 2022 poll holding 23 of the 30 seats in the state, all but one with a margin of under 4%.
Many commentators credit the wave of blue to local objections to Bob Brown’s anti-Adani convoy, doubts over Labor’s climate change and tax policies and preference flows from minor parties, namely Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and Clive Palmer’s United Australia party.
Labor’s post-2019 election review found the party needed to “find a way to reconnect with Queenslanders” if it is to win the next election and indeed, opposition leader Anthony Albanese has spent significant time in Queensland, including visiting a coalmine.
Continue reading...The parties’ election machines have been humming into gear for weeks. Here’s the who who’s of each operation
All the focus of an election is on the leaders’ planes and travelling parties criss-crossing the nation for press conferences and photo ops, but behind every decision or smallest detail are the nerve centres of the whole operation – the Coalition and Labor campaign headquarters.
As endless column inches in recent weeks were devoted to when Scott Morrison would make the trip to the governor general’s home in Yarralumla, the campaign headquarters (CHQ) for the major parties were quietly humming into gear, with key staff flooding into the central command units at the heart of the election machines.
Continue reading...Prime minister calls federal election for 21 May as two leaders outline pitch to voters
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is imploring voters not to risk a change to an “uncertain” future under the opposition, while the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, says now is the time to seize the opportunity for better times ahead.
After Morrison visited the governor general on Sunday to call a 21 May election, the two leaders began the 41-day election campaign by outlining their pitch to voters.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison says federal election about choosing between ‘a government you know and a Labor opposition you don’t’; Anthony Albanese says ‘Australians deserve better’ at campaign launch; at least 13 more deaths from Covid. This blog is now closed
Very glad to report the ABC has a live feed of the PM’s plan taxiing along at Sydney airport. Thoroughly engaging stuff.
The ABC is now reporting the PM has jumped aboard the official prime ministerial jet at Sydney airport, heading to Canberra.
Continue reading...Guardian Australia is tracking Coalition and Labor funding commitments and highlighting pork-barrelling during the election campaign
The Morrison government has promised more than $5.6bn in discretionary grants to projects across the country as part of a massive $28bn pre-election spending spree, with almost half directed to key marginal seats.
A Guardian Australia analysis of major party spending commitments from January to March this year shows Queensland as the biggest beneficiary of commitments from the Coalition and Labor, with the state a key battleground for parties to form government.
Continue reading...Will bullying claims against the PM, and independents demanding climate action, damage conservatives’ chances of holding on to power?
• Scott Morrison: frustrated, frazzled and under siege
• Labor’s lone wolf: Anthony Albanese in the fight of his life
Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, has called a general election for May, hoping for a second victory against the odds as he faces accusations of lying and bullying from within his own party.
An informal campaign has been under way for weeks, but Morrison pulled the trigger on the election on Sunday, with opinion polls showing his personal popularity plummeting and his party losing ground with voters.
Continue reading...Unlike Queensland and New South Wales, Victoria has no culturally specific family violence refuges
Zara* believes she and her children wouldn’t be alive today were it not for the support she received while at a family violence refuge in New Zealand tailored to her cultural needs.
“The mainstream refuge didn’t understand the seriousness of abuse the ethnic women go through,” Zara said. “I have been told by my own family, community and society to reconcile so many times and every time the abuse worsens.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
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