Category Archives: Australia news

Endangered greater gliders recorded in proposed great koala national park in NSW as logging continues

Posted on by

Conservation groups call for immediate action to protect wildlife as two-year wait for Labor’s promised creation of park continues

Government surveys have found tens of thousands of endangered greater gliders could be living within the proposed area for a great koala national park in New South Wales, prompting new calls for the area to be quickly protected from logging.

Data from aerial drone and ground-based surveys at 169 sites within the proposed park were used to model the likely presence of Australia’s largest gliding possum across the entire 176,000 hectares the NSW government is considering for protection.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Leaders’ debate live: PM says he has ‘no reason’ not to trust Trump as Dutton says ‘I don’t know the president’

Posted on by

Prime minister and Coalition leader face off in showdown hosted by ABC. Follow live updates

Albanese says Labor didn’t commission modelling on negative gearing

Anthony Albanese said Peter Dutton’s suggestion that the housing crisis is something that developed in the last two years is “nonsense”.

Everyone watching this program knows that this has been developing for a long period of time. We have not had enough homes been built. The former government did not bother to have a housing minister for half the time they were in office. What we’ve done since we came to office, is look towards the big issue which is supply.

The experts say that what that potentially [would] do is is diminish supply, not increase it. That’s why the key to fixing the housing issues is supply.

It certainly wasn’t commissioned by us to do so.

We need to do both. We need to particularly give young people a fair crack … The key is supply. That’s why only Labor is offering a plan at this election to increase supply of housing.

That is on the supply side a very significant benefit. The second part is we reduce migration by 25%, so that we can allow the housing stock to be built up again and by doing that – as well as stopping foreigners for two years from purchasing Australian homes – we give young Australians a go.

Continue reading...

Australia’s next government may be Great Barrier Reef’s last chance after sixth mass bleaching, conservationist says

Posted on by

Consecutive and severe bleaching is ‘fundamentally changing’ nature of reef, the International Coral Reef Society says

The Great Barrier Reef was hit by a sixth widespread coral bleaching event since 2016 this summer – the second time the world’s biggest coral reef has seen the phenomenon strike in back-to-back years – according to government authorities.

Scientists and conservationists reacted with dismay that widespread bleaching – driven by global heating – was becoming normalised, with one saying Australia’s next term of government may be the natural wonder’s last shot at survival.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

$500 for the nosebleeds? Lady Gaga fans furious over ticket prices for Australian shows

Posted on by

The Mayhem tour’s ticketing agencies deny dynamic pricing has been implemented, but fans have complained prices are high and inconsistent

The little monsters are not happy. Lady Gaga fans have swamped social media to complain about exorbitant ticket prices for the pop star’s Australian concerts, with many speculating that dynamic pricing is involved – a claim the official ticketing agency for the Melbourne and Brisbane shows, Ticketmaster, has denied.

Off the back of her chart-topping album Mayhem, Lady Gaga is heading to Australia for the first time in 11 years, with Live Nation bringing the Mayhem Ball to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in December. Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation, is responsible for the ticket sales in Melbourne and Brisbane. Ticketek is separately handling the Sydney show, because of its affiliation with Sydney venue Accor Stadium.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

‘Let Rome burn’: Coalition MP says allowing blackouts the only way to turn voters off renewable energy

Posted on by

Exclusive: Power outages in major cities would help build opposition to climate policies, Colin Boyce tells podcast

The Coalition MP Colin Boyce says he believes the way to turn voters against renewable energy is to “let Rome burn for a while” and allow power blackouts to occur in major cities.

Guardian Australia reported on Wednesday that Boyce had described blackouts as a “big political opportunity” at a meeting of climate science deniers in late 2023.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Peter Dutton’s nuclear power plan could lead to major electricity shortages, analysis says

Posted on by

Coalition’s proposal overestimates the reliability of Australia’s ageing coal generators, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says

Peter Dutton’s plan to build less renewable energy and keep Australia’s coal plants running longer has overestimated the reliability of ageing generators and could lead to major electricity shortages, according to a new analysis.

The Coalition has pledged to put taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors at seven sites around Australia and has pointed to modelling by Frontier Economics that shows the country’s ageing coal fleet would need to take up the slack in electricity generation while they are built.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Coalition MP Colin Boyce told climate science deniers blackouts a ‘big political opportunity’

Posted on by

Boyce tells Climate and Energy Realists Queensland that opposition to renewables is growing and fellow MPs should adopt a ‘do nothing strategy’

Coalition MP Colin Boyce told a group of climate science deniers that blackouts were “a big political opportunity” and that he had urged fellow MPs to adopt a “do nothing strategy” that would allow power outages and build opposition to net-zero policies.

A video of Boyce, posted on YouTube, speaking to the Climate and Energy Realists Queensland group, includes comments by the Flynn MP that net-zero climate policies “need a rethink”.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Muslim advocacy group to preference Greens above Labor in some seats despite disagreement on religious freedom

Posted on by

Muslim Votes Matter concerned about policy preventing religious schools from discriminating against teachers or students

A potentially influential Muslim advocacy group is planning to tell voters to preference the Greens above Labor on how-to-vote cards in several key seats, despite objecting to the minor party’s position on religious freedom in schools.

Muslim Votes Matter has expressed concern about the party’s plan to ensure religious schools cannot discriminate against teachers or students on the basis of their sexuality, but has welcomed a commitment to ensure “all rights are acknowledged and taken into account”.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Brisbane Greens MP joins OnlyFans to ‘make people pay attention’ to HIV prevention drug policy

Posted on by

Exclusive: Stephen Bates spruiks free PrEP and PEP proposal on subscription platform best known for adult content, as well as on dating app Grindr

The Greens MP Stephen Bates has joined OnlyFans – a first for an Australian politician – as the party pushes to make the HIV prevention drugs PrEP and PEP free.

It may normally be a career-ending move for a politician to be joining a site known for pornography, but Bates has joined the site with the first video on his free-to-subscribe page announcing the Greens’ push to make PrEP and PEP prescriptions free to anyone with a script.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Axing Labor’s free Tafe would mean fewer builders and higher house prices, experts warn

Posted on by

The Coalition remains opposed to the scheme, claiming it is ‘badly designed and poorly targeted’

Australia’s construction worker shortage – and prospects for affordable housing – would worsen if Peter Dutton scraps Labor’s free Tafe program, experts warn, pushing housing prices even further out of reach of prospective buyers.

After a video emerged of Liberal frontbencher Sarah Henderson saying the fee-free Tafe policy was “just not working”, the opposition leader was asked on Tuesday if he would cut the scheme – designed to encourage people to work in priority industries like the construction sector.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Victoria’s curriculum authority board sacked after VCE exam bungle

Posted on by

Education minister Ben Carroll says VCAA overhaul will aim to give families, students and schools full confidence in exams

The entire board of Victoria’s curriculum authority has been sacked after a review into the state’s VCE cheat sheet bungle last year.

The blunder, during last year’s year 12 exams in Victoria, saw the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) accidentally publish exam content weeks before students sat for the tests. The review found the sample cover pages containing exam content had been viewed about 6,000 times.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Lawyers for Australian student who lost eye during IDF raid in West Bank doubt Israel will investigate

Posted on by

Foreign minister Penny Wong has demanded full review into wounding of Ranem Abu-Izneid in November but legal team claim there have been ‘no updates’

Lawyers for an Australian dentistry student who lost her eye after being struck by shrapnel in the occupied West Bank say they doubt Israel is investigating the matter despite the foreign minister, Penny Wong, demanding a comprehensive probe.

Palestinian-Australian student Ranem Abu-Izneid, 20, was sheltering with her friend on 15 November 2024 at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem, when she says a bullet fired by Israeli forces penetrated the window. She later lost her right eye.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australian PM voices concern after report Russia requested access to Indonesia air force base

Posted on by

Anthony Albanese says ‘obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region’, and analysts say it is unlikely the unusual request would be granted

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has said officials are seeking further information after a report emerged that Russia is seeking to base military aircraft in Indonesia’s remote Papua region, on Australia’s northern doorstep.

Albanese said on Tuesday: “We obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region, very clearly.

Continue reading...

Peter Dutton says he will help his children with a house deposit ‘at some stage’

Posted on by

Both major parties spruik housing policies, with Anthony Albanese saying critics may not have read all the detail of Labor’s plan

Peter Dutton says he will help his son with a housing deposit “at some stage”, a day after dodging questions about whether he would use his family wealth and salary to assist his children to get into the market.

Dutton on Monday brought his 20-year-old son, Harry, on the campaign trail to talk about the difficulties of saving for a home. Harry said he and his sister, Rebecca, had both been “saving like mad” to scrape together deposits of their own.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Man’s body pulled from water after car hits wife and plunges them both into Parramatta River

Posted on by

The 74-year-old woman is in hospital after being rescued by a man working nearby at Greenwich in Sydney’s north

A retired married couple were at their regular fishing spot in Sydney’s north when the man struck his wife with the car before both plunged into the water.

The 74-year-old woman was rescued from the Parramatta River in Greenwich by a man working nearby, and was in Royal North Shore hospital with non-life-threatening injuries where she was being supported by family and friends.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Woman killed in late-night drive-by shooting in Sydney suburb

Posted on by

Police searching for perpetrators after multiple shots fired at home in Ambarvale, on the city south-west outskirts

A drive-by shooting has killed a woman in her 60s and left a suburban Sydney home peppered with bullet holes.

Those responsible remained on the run on Tuesday following the overnight attack in Ambarvale on Sydney’s south-west outskirts.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Australia does not have enough tradies to fulfill Labor’s housing promise, experts say

Posted on by

Construction industry already faces shortfall of 80,000 workers as government vows to build 250,000 homes a year for four years

Australia does not have enough construction workers and other tradies to meet election pitches to boost housing supply, experts say, casting doubt over the major parties’ pledges to address housing affordability.

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton announced their competing housing plans this week, with both major parties seeking to increase the number of new home builds above the current annual rate of about 170,000.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Victorian Liberal leader distances state party from Peter Dutton’s nuclear proposal: ‘Our focus is gas’

Posted on by

Exclusive: Brad Battin says he had a conversation with the federal opposition leader about the ‘language’ he would use about plans to build a nuclear reactor in eastern Victoria

The Victorian opposition leader says he discussed the language he would use to distance the state party from the federal Coalition’s campaign to build a nuclear reactor in the Latrobe Valley, telling Peter Dutton “it’s your campaign”.

The Loy Yang coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley east of Melbourne is one of seven proposed sites for the federal Coalition’s proposal to build nuclear reactors, the centrepiece energy policy the federal Liberal leader will be taking to the 3 May poll.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Finance minister vows to slash more consultants and accuses Coalition of importing Trump’s Doge agenda

Posted on by

Exclusive: Katy Gallagher says focus will be ‘on driving cultural change’ within public service if Labor wins the election

The finance minister has vowed to continue slashing the government’s use of consultants and rebuilding the public service if re-elected, while accusing the Coalition of importing a Doge-style agenda from the US.

In an effort to highlight the public service as a key campaign issue, Katy Gallagher said Labor had inherited an agriculture department that was “going broke”, a “bin fire” at home affairs, a social services department with no internal policy unit and “total disasters” in aged care and veterans’ affairs agencies.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Guardian Essential poll: Labor pulls further ahead of Coalition as voters back Albanese on cost of living

Posted on by

The survey is in line with other recent major polls which have all showed movements toward the ALP

Labor has pulled further ahead of the Coalition as the election campaign continues, opening up a larger lead in the latest Essential poll after two weeks of policy confusion and backdowns from Peter Dutton’s Liberals.

Dutton’s approval rating has also dipped, while more voters rate Anthony Albanese as the better leader on addressing cost of living, providing stable leadership, emissions reduction and keeping Australians safe.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...