Category Archives: Australia news

Australian journalist Chen Lei to face court in Beijing on Thursday, sources say

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Lei, who was detained in 2020, was arrested and charged with illegally supplying state secrets overseas – but her family have denied wrongdoing

An Australian journalist will face court in Beijing next Thursday on state secrets charges, after being detained for more than 19 months, sources close to the case say.

Cheng Lei, who worked as a television anchor for Chinese state media for a decade before being detained in 2020, was formally arrested a year ago on allegations of illegally supplying state secrets overseas.

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Bangladesh v Australia: ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup – live!

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*Local time. So half an hour to the coin toss if the rain stays away. It’ll be 43 overs per side. Promising.

The umpires are wandering around the middle in their fetching pink cagoules. It looks blustery so hopefully the rain blows on through. 4.08pm local time is the cut off to get a game in.

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Australia news live update: 26 Covid deaths as Atagi recommends fourth jab; sanctions for Belarusian president; Lambie says refugee deal ‘a line in the sand’

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Jacqui Lambie says she did not regret supporting repeal of medevac laws; PM announces $58m funding for endometriosis care and treatment, and $81m for Medicare-supported genetic testing; new sanctions on Belarusian president and Russian propagandists; Peter Dutton says Australia has ‘fantastic’ relationship with Solomon Islands; nation records 26 Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s news live

And Victoria has reported 9,244 new cases and nine deaths overnight:

NSW has reported 23, 702 new Covid cases overnight and seven deaths:

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Great Barrier Reef authority confirms unprecedented sixth mass coral bleaching event

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Aerial surveys show almost no reefs across a 1,200km stretch escaping the heat, prompting scientists to call for urgent action on climate crisis

The Great Barrier Reef has been hit with a sixth mass coral bleaching event, the marine park’s authority has confirmed, with aerial surveys showing almost no reefs across a 1,200km stretch escaping the heat.

The Guardian understands a United Nations mission currently under way to check the health and management of the reef will be briefed on the initial findings of the surveys as early as Friday in Townsville.

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Star casino senior manager admits ‘knowingly misleading’ regulator on gambling junkets

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Inquiry hears building approval submission for a private gaming room failed to mention a window allowing junket operator to receive cash from players

A senior casino manager has admitted “knowingly misleading” the New South Wales gaming regulator about how gambling junkets operated inside a private high-roller wagering room at The Star Sydney.

Graeme Stevens, group compliance manager at Star Entertainment Group, resumed evidence on Friday at a royal commission-style inquiry into whether the gaming giant’s Sydney casino should keep its licence.

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Shayla Phillips: Tasmania police use dogs and drones in third day of search for missing girl

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Shayla, 4, was last seen near Stormlea Road in Stormlea on Wednesday afternoon

Tasmanian search crews remain hopeful a missing four-year-old girl will be found alive and well as the search enters its third day.

Shayla Phillips was last seen about 2.30pm on Wednesday near Stormlea Road in Stormlea, wearing pink leggings, a cream top and gumboots.

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Nine-year wait for NZ refugee deal due to fears of snubbing US option, Jacqui Lambie and government say

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Independent senator says deal with New Zealand to resettle 450 people could have caused some to turn down US program

Australia waited nine years to accept the New Zealand refugee deal out of fear asylum seekers would snub the option of the US, independent senator Jacqui Lambie and the Morrison government have claimed.

On Thursday Australia accepted an offer first made in February 2013 to take up to 450 refugees and asylum seekers, which Lambie then revealed had been a key commitment to win her casting vote to repeal legislation improving access to medical evacuation from offshore detention.

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‘Never say never’: Ash Barty refuses to rule out returning to tennis in future

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Ash Barty has said she would “never say never” about returning to professional tennis following her shock retirement. She would not be drawn on questions about plans to remain in professional sport, and in response to a question about the prospect of a comeback, the Australian said: “Well, you never say never, it’s a long way off.”

Barty also hinted at a role with junior tennis in her home country, saying that “seeing the smiles” of the faces of younger players taking up the sport had reminded her “of why I started playing”. Asked if that meant she would have a formal position with junior tennis, Barty said she had “no details to share as yet”.

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Liberals select right-aligned candidate Simon Kennedy to run in Bennelong

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McKinsey partner who provided advice on jobkeeper replaces John Alexander in Sydney north shore seat

The Liberals have selected Simon Kennedy, a partner at consulting firm McKinsey, for the federal seat of Bennelong on Sydney’s north shore, in a branch plebiscite which again saw the right-aligned candidate trump the moderates’ preferred pick.

Kennedy, who is a relative newcomer to the party, won the ballot against Gisele Kapterian, a former ministerial staffer, 148 votes to 95. He replaces the former tennis star, John Alexander, who is retiring.

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‘Really concerning’: China finalising security deal with Solomon Islands to base warships in the Pacific

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Draft agreement circulating on social media suggests China could establish military base less than 2,000km from Australia

Australian officials are alarmed at Solomon Islands’ planned security deal with China with the defence minister, Peter Dutton, stating “we would be concerned clearly about any military base being established” less than 2,000km off the coast.

Solomon Islands has signed a policing deal with China and will send a proposal for a broader security agreement covering the military to its cabinet for consideration.

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Jacqui Lambie claims Scott Morrison threatened her with jail time if she revealed secret deal on refugees

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Tasmanian senator says prime minister committed in 2019 to accept New Zealand’s offer to resettle refugees, but she could not talk about agreement

Jacqui Lambie has alleged that Scott Morrison told her she risked jail time if she disclosed details of a secret deal that required the government to allow refugees to resettle in New Zealand in exchange for her support to repeal Australia’s “medevac” laws.

The Tasmanian independent senator made the accusations about the “quite threatening” exchange in an interview with news.com.au, published hours after the Morrison government announced it would finally take up New Zealand’s long-standing offer to resettle 150 refugees a year. She said she was “rapt these people are free”.

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Assistant defence minister Andrew Hastie tells court Ben Roberts-Smith was seen as a bully in SAS

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Hastie, giving evidence in defamation trial, also claims Roberts-Smith’s reported version of Afghanistan mission was an ‘alternate universe’

The assistant defence minister, former SAS officer Andrew Hastie, has told a court there was a “widespread view” within the SAS that Ben Roberts-Smith was a bully towards his comrades.

The minister told the federal court on Thursday that Roberts-Smith’s reported version of a mission they both served on in Afghanistan was an “alternate universe” to what he observed.

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Growing concerns for four-year-old girl missing from backyard in southern Tasmania

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Searchers have found one of the two dogs Shayla Phillips was last seen playing with in Stormlea, south-east of Hobart, but there is no sign of the girl

Almost 100 people are involved in a search for a four-year-old girl who went missing on the Tasman Peninsula and has not been seen for more than 24 hours.

Shayla Phillips was last seen about 2.30pm Wednesday near Stormlea Rd in Stormlea, wearing pink leggings, a cream top, and gumboots.

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Australia agrees 450 refugees can be resettled in New Zealand, nine years after deal first offered

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Under the deal 150 refugees a year held on Nauru, or who have come to Australia temporarily, will be eligible for resettlement

Up to 450 refugees from Australia’s regional processing centres will be resettled in New Zealand over the next three years, after the Coalition belatedly took up a long-standing agreement struck more than nine years ago.

Up to 150 refugees a year will be able to go to New Zealand, under the deal announced by Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, and the New Zealand immigration minister, Kris Faafoi, on Thursday.

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Japanese encephalitis declared disease of national significance – as it happened

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Rex Patrick to reveal political intentions tomorrow after Nick Xenophon announces run for Senate; Japanese encephalitis declared disease of national significance; Liberals select candidate for Bennelong; fifth arrest this week over climate crisis protest; Morrison says having Putin at G20 ‘a step too far’; at least 35 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Here’s the latest on that rain to come, which is already hitting Sydney.

Australia is risking its economic security in a future crisis by being too dependent on foreign-flagged commercial ships, a former navy chief, Tim Barrett, has warned.

When push comes to shove, the place where the ship is registered is king. They can tell their ships where to go, what to do and what to carry. We don’t have an ability to do that except for the handful we have left.

To be entirely dependent on others is very concerning.

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Flood-hit Queensland renters have just days left to negotiate a break in their lease

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With rental properties in short supply, many tenants are facing a difficult decision whether to stay or go

Howard Marshall and his partner, Gavin Chuah, have spent three weeks living out of suitcases and bed-hopping in and out of friends’ homes.

Flood water inundated the garage of their South Brisbane unit on 27 February, interrupting the building’s electricity and hot water supplies, and shutting off the lift and fire alarm.

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UN mission must see coral bleaching to get ‘whole picture’ of Great Barrier Reef, experts say

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Government’s reef envoy says visiting scientists ‘have to see the good and the bad’ as widespread bleaching confirmed

A UN mission under way in Queensland to see if the Great Barrier Reef should be put on an “in danger” list will not get “the whole picture” unless it visits reefs currently experiencing coral bleaching, conservationists and the government’s own reef envoy have said.

Details of the 10-day mission, which began on Monday in Brisbane, are being kept confidential and the locations to be visited have not been formally disclosed.

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Michael McCormack’s movie nights cost taxpayers $2,500 a ticket – and his scene was cut

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Exclusive: regional movie events in 2019, attended by just 137 people, were set to feature then deputy prime minister spruiking infrastructure spending

They’re the “problematic” videos that the finance department didn’t want to see the light of day.

Created for an “objective” infrastructure campaign, the videos featured a cheery Michael McCormack spruiking federal government spending. They were to be played before free movies in a taxpayer-funded roadshow through regional cities to promote the Building our Future package in 2019, ahead of the May election.

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Music improves wellbeing and quality of life, research suggests

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A review of 26 studies finds benefits of music on mental health are similar to those of exercise and weight loss

“Music,” wrote the late neurologist Oliver Sacks, “has a unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation.”

A new analysis has empirically confirmed something that rings true for many music lovers – that singing, playing or listening to music can improve wellbeing and quality of life.

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Push to protect sexual assault victims’ communications with doctors enters Victorian parliament

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Confidential communications often obtained by defence lawyers to undermine victims’ credibility

Victorian alleged sexual assault victims will have the right to defend their confidential communications being aired in court under new amendments to be introduced to state parliament by Justice party MP Stuart Grimley.

The amendments to the justice legislation amendment bill 2022, to be debated in the upper house on Thursday, were recommended in two separate inquiries by the Victorian Law Reform Commission in 2016 and 2021.

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