Category Archives: Australia news

Victoria Liberals bail out John Pesutto with $1.5m loan to avoid bankruptcy

Posted on by

Party approves last-minute loan to help former leader pay $2.3m defamation costs against Moira Deeming

The Victorian Liberal party will provide a $1.5m loan to former leader John Pesutto to ensure he can pay Moira Deeming’s legal fees and avoid bankruptcy.

The loan was debated by the 19-member administrative committee on Thursday night and ultimately endorsed after a secret ballot, which was proposed to limit any factional retribution within a deeply divided party.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Guardian Australia’s In the Box investigation wins award at Walkley Foundation’s Mid-Year Media Prizes

Posted on by

Ben Smee and Melissa Davey’s investigation uncovered stories of incarcerated children who were born with severe intellectual disabilities

A groundbreaking Guardian Australia investigation into incarcerated teenagers born with severe intellectual disabilities has been awarded the Media Diversity Australia prize at the Walkley Foundation’s Mid-Year Media Prizes.

In the box: how children with FASD end up in police cells, by Queensland correspondent Ben Smee and medical editor Melissa Davey, uncovered the stories of children who, branded repeat offenders, spend their days locked in adult watch houses despite living with the effects of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Protest at Sydney synagogue wasn’t targeting ‘religious event’ but Israel Defense Forces speaker, court told

Posted on by

NSW Labor’s anti-protest laws protecting places of worship have ‘chilling effect’ on democracy, Palestine Action Group barrister tells supreme court

A protest outside a Sydney synagogue – which was the “catalyst” for the New South Wales government introducing anti-protest laws designed to curb antisemitism – was targeting an event where a member of the Israel Defense Forces was speaking, a court has been told during a constitutional challenge.

The Palestine Action Group is challenging in the NSW supreme court the Minns Labor government’s controversial laws giving police broad powers to restrict protests.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

News Corp boss earns $42m as highest-paid CEO of Australian-listed company

Posted on by

Analysis shows local chiefs earning 55 times more than average workers in Australia amid call to keep watch for ‘egregious’ bonuses

News Corp’s chief executive has become the highest-paid CEO of an Australian-listed company, a new analysis of CEO pay has found.

CEOs of ASX-listed companies are still being paid 55 times more than average workers in Australia but the gap is yet to widen to extremes seen overseas, according to the annual analysis from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI).

Continue reading...

‘Wake-up call’ for Australian universities as 70% suffer a fall in latest global ranking

Posted on by

Australia still had two universities, the University of Melbourne and University of NSW, in the top 20 of the QS World University Rankings

Dozens of Australia’s top universities have dropped in a global ranking amid a “turbulent year” for higher education, as attacks from Donald Trump’s second administration exacerbated years of disruption for the embattled sector.

The University of Melbourne, Australia’s highest performer, dropped seven places to 19th in the QS World University Rankings, run by the global higher education specialist Quacquarelli Symonds, while the University of Sydney dropped from 18th in the world to 25th.

Continue reading...

Chris Minns to reveal NSW plans to bolster housing construction

Posted on by

‘You can’t build new homes without roads, parks and schools to match, and the community shouldn’t have to wait for them,’ premier says

Developers in New South Wales will be able to choose between paying a levy of $12,000 per lot, or building infrastructure such as roads and parks themselves as an “in kind payment” in a further push to speed up the construction of new housing in the state.

The changes will be revealed on Thursday by the premier, Chris Minns, before next week’s state budget.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Erin Patterson could have eaten same lunch as guests and suffered less severe poisoning, defence says

Posted on by

Murder accused’s barrister also warns jurors against using ‘dangerous and seductive’ hindsight reasoning to find mushroom lunch cook guilty

Erin Patterson’s barrister says the jury in her triple murder trial cannot be convinced she did not eat the same beef wellingtons as her lunch guests, and should ignore evidence from the only other survivor of the meal that she served herself on a different coloured plate.

Colin Mandy SC also said in his closing address that Patterson was “not on trial for being a liar”, and warned jurors against using “dangerous and seductive” hindsight reasoning to find her guilty.

Patterson, 50, is facing three charges of murder and one of attempted murder in the Victorian supreme court.

Continue reading...

Four teenagers charged over alleged six-hour gang-rape of girl in Sydney

Posted on by

Police accuse four males – aged 14, 16, 18 and 19 – of attacking a 17-year-old in her car in Liverpool in city’s south-west

An alleged six-hour gang-rape of a teenage girl in a car at the hands of four youths has been described by senior New South Wales police as a degrading incident that “beggars belief”.

A 14-year-old boy was the youngest of the group who allegedly took part in the sexual assault across south-western Sydney in December 2024.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Murray Watt ‘personally lobbied’ Unesco over barring of WA rock art from world heritage list

Posted on by

The environment minister says the report on the Murujuga petroglyphs has been ‘clearly influenced’ by environment campaigners

Australia’s environment minister, Murray Watt, has lobbied national Unesco ambassadors in a bid to overturn a recommendation that ancient rock art in Western Australia’s north-west should not receive world heritage listing unless nearby industrial facilities shut down.

Delegations from the Australian government and the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, a body established to represent five traditional Indigenous language groups, plan to attend a Unesco meeting in Paris next month to argue for an immediate world heritage listing for the Murujuga cultural landscape.

Continue reading...

Australians could be spared excessive power bills as Labor looks to stamp out price gouging

Posted on by

Chris Bowen to announce review of default market offer, which guides what retailers can charge households and businesses

Households could be spared unreasonable power bill rises in the future as the Albanese government looks to stamp out price gouging after repeated price hikes.

In an address to the Australian Energy Week on Wednesday, Chris Bowen is expected to announce a review of the default market offer (DMO), which sets a benchmark price for residential and small business electricity bills.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Walk for truth: hundreds of people join 486km trek from Portland to Melbourne for reconciliation

Posted on by

Yoorrook Justice commissioner walked from the site of first settlement in Victoria to state parliament to promote truth-telling about Australian history

Travis Lovett began his 486km journey with a single step and a long-held hope to bring the people of Victoria with him on a journey through the state’s colonial past.

It’s a traumatic past that Lovett has been peering into for the past three years through his work as a commissioner and co-chair on the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the county’s first formal, Indigenous-led truth-telling process.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australia mushroom trial live: defence outlines two issues jury must consider to determine Erin Patterson’s fate

Posted on by

Victorian woman, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder following a fatal beef wellington lunch in Leongatha in 2023. Follow live

Rogers says what Patterson “outwardly” portrayed did not always align with her “true feelings”.

She says Simon gave evidence that when he told her his parents were in hospital the day after the lunch Patterson never asked about them.

Continue reading...

ABC investigates defence correspondent for allegedly not disclosing trip paid for by German shipbuilder

Posted on by

Andrew Greene, who has worked for the public broadcaster for more than 10 years, filed a story from Germany about business booming at naval shipyards

The ABC is investigating “serious allegations” that its defence correspondent Andrew Greene filed a story about a German shipbuilder without disclosing that he had traveled to Germany courtesy of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, which is hoping to win Australian navy contracts.

Media Watch revealed that Greene filed a story last week for ABC radio’s The World Today about how business is booming at German shipyards. The report, which has since been taken down, allegedly failed to disclose that the journalist had been a guest of the defence company.

Continue reading...

Pheobe Bishop: human remains found near Bundaberg confirmed as those of missing Queensland teenager

Posted on by

Police, who have charged the 17-year-old’s housemates with her murder, confirmed identification of remains discovered close to Gin Gin in early June

Police say they have identified human remains found in scrub near Bundaberg as missing teenager Pheobe Bishop.

Bishop’s housemates – James Wood, 34, and Tanika Bromley, 33 – were arrested on 5 June and charged with her murder. They have not entered pleas and are on remand awaiting trial.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Police hunt masked gunmen who shot three people at Sydney kebab shop in ‘brazen’ daylight attack

Posted on by

One of three victims of ‘horrifying’ shooting in Auburn has had two previous attempts made on his life, NSW police say

A man shot in a “shockingly brazen” daylight attack in south-west Sydney, which wounded two other people, has had two previous attempts made on his life.

The acting New South Wales police commissioner, Peter Thurtell, said it was “beyond comprehension” three people could be gunned down in Sydney in daylight.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Erin Patterson trial hears of ‘four calculated deceptions’ at heart of mushroom lunch case as closing address begins

Posted on by

Prosecutor also tells court Patterson lied about cancer to lunch guests because she thought ‘her lie would die with them’

Four calculated deceptions are at the heart of Erin Patterson’s triple-murder case, the prosecution has claimed in its closing address to the jury, including a lie about cancer the accused hoped would “die with” her lunch guests.

On Monday, Nanette Rogers SC spent day 32 of the trial closing the prosecution case, outlining these four deceptions: Patterson’s fabricated cancer claim; the “lethal doses” of death cap mushrooms “secreted” in home-cooked beef wellingtons; Patterson’s attempts to make it seem she also suffered death cap mushroom poisoning; and the “sustained cover-up she embarked upon to conceal the truth”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Tasmanian police officer shot dead at rural property during court-issued attempt to repossess house

Posted on by

Officer was attending the property to execute a warrant and was shot as he approached the house, police allege

A “devastated” family is in mourning and an alleged offender is in custody after a senior Tasmanian police officer died in a shooting in the state’s north-west.

The police commissioner, Donna Adams, said officers attended a residential property on Allison Road in North Motton at about 11am on Monday to execute a court-issued warrant to repossess the residence. They alleged the occupant of the home fatally shot a 57-year-old male officer as they approached the front of the house.

Continue reading...

Toll of Trump’s USAID cuts on Australian aid revealed, with projects to help children among hardest hit

Posted on by

International development council describes consequences as ‘dire’ as 120 Australian projects affected by loss of more than $400m

The Trump administration’s gutting of foreign aid has seen a $400m hit to Australian projects, with 120 projects affected, at least 20 offices closed and people left without crucial support for health, education, humanitarian and climate change issues, the Australian Council for International Development (Acfid) has found.

Acfid has surveyed its members and their partners, who deliver projects on the ground, on the impact of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) cuts, which took effect when the president, Donald Trump, froze funding for 90 days from 20 January.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Majority of Australians think China will be world’s most powerful country by 2035, poll finds

Posted on by

Lowy Institute report shows trust in the US has tumbled to lowest level since thinktank began polling

A majority of Australians expect China will be the most powerful country in the world by 2035 as trust in the US tumbles, new research has found.

Just over one in three Australians (36%) trusted the US to act responsibly on the world stage, representing a 20-point fall from 2024 and the smallest proportion since the Lowy Institute began polling in 2005.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

One million Australians missing specialist doctor appointments due to cost, report finds

Posted on by

Grattan Institute finds one in 10 Australians now paying $600 a year for specialist appointments

One in 10 Australians pay almost $600 each year to see specialist doctors, with 1 million delaying or skipping appointments due to the cost, according to new analysis.

A report by the Grattan Institute, released on Monday, revealed outpatient fees have soared over the past 15 years. The average initial out-of-pocket psychiatrist fee was $671 in 2023, with some “extreme fee” specialists charging more than triple the scheduled Medicare fee. It found almost 2 million Australians are delaying or skipping specialist appointments each year – about half due to cost – adding pressure to the country’s hospital systems.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...