At a time when international travel has been mostly out of reach, BirdLife Australia is turning the spotlight on some of the country’s mightiest and most threatened migratory birds in its 2022 calendar
The drive to get the population vaccinated is gathering momentum despite the issue dividing families and straining friendships
It’s fair to say the people in the northern rivers of New South Wales generally do not like being told what to do by the government.
In a region with a free-thinking, anti-authoritarian reputation, and a long history of anti-vaccination sentiment, the requirement to get the Covid jab for work or leisure purposes was never going to find a warm welcome.
Continue reading...Spiros Vasilakis’s mother, Maria, died in the Melbourne aged care home outbreak. He is among 64 witnesses to give evidence at a coronial inquest starting Monday
“One thing I will never forget is the line of ambulances coming in and coming out,” Spiros Vasilakis says as he recalls standing outside St Basil’s Home for the Aged in July last year, where his mother contracted Covid-19.
“My mum had died at that point,” he recalls. “And to stand outside a place that was not giving family any answers, seeing residents taken away one after another in ambulances, about to die or already dead … I just remember feeling overwhelmed by sadness.”
Continue reading...Thousands march in Melbourne CBD as Victoria reports 1,221 new Covid-19 cases, NSW 250 and the ACT 11. Follow live
The Victorian numbers have also been published. The state recorded 1,221 new Covid-19 cases.
Sadly four people infected with the virus have died.
Continue reading...‘Lapsed Liberals’ and grassroots community groups are fielding high-profile candidates. Their target: the balance of power in Australia’s 2022 election
At the last federal election, the Coalition faced challenges from a string of hopeful independents in rural and city seats, largely running on climate issues. With two exceptions – Zali Steggall in Warringah and Helen Haines in Indi – they came up short.
Next year the independents will be back for another shot, focusing on heartland Coalition seats in New South Wales and Victoria. The difference this time is there is a road-tested model of how to mobilise the local community and run a campaign, and a $2m war chest on offer from Climate 200, a group established by the climate activist Simon Holmes à Court.
Continue reading...Birds Chile and Greater, painstakingly restored by taxidermists, will be on display at SA Museum as part of Feast festival
Australia’s last flamingos will go on display this weekend after taxidermists restored the magnificent pink birds.
The last flamingo in Australia (named Chile) died in 2018, the second last (Greater) in 2014 – but they have been resurrected as gay emblems for South Australia’s Feast festival.
Continue reading...Federal government releases net zero modelling; Scott Morrison says ‘of course the French are upset’; Australia passes 90% first dose Covid vaccination milestone; Victoria records 1,115 cases and nine deaths; NSW records 286 cases and two deaths; state funeral for Bert Newton. Follow all the day’s news
Accused drug smuggler Mostafa Baluch is due to appear before NSW court today after he was recaptured, extradited from the Gold Coast and slapped with an additional outstanding arrest warrant charge.
It’s alleged that Baluch is the financier behind a 900kg shipment of cocaine into Australia, and was on the run for nearly two weeks after allegedly cutting off his ankle monitor.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison accused of being loose with the truth over electric vehicles, submarine deal and botched vaccination rollout
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has been forced to address allegations he repeatedly lies as the fallout from his disastrous trip to the G20 and the Glasgow climate conference continues.
Two weeks after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, labelled Morrison a liar on the world stage, the Australian leader defended himself against accusations he is routinely loose with the truth, culminating with a talkshow radio host baldly asking if he had ever told a lie in public life.
Continue reading...In the beginning it only told small wallaby sized fibs – nobody really cared. Eventually people noticed and some of them got quite cross
Victoria records 1,313 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths; NSW records 261 cases and one death; NSW bracing for widespread flooding; man dies in police custody in Melbourne; PM continues to lash out at Labor as he responds to questions about his government’s stance on EVs – follow all the day’s news
A man has died in custody at a police station in Melbourne’s west, AAP reports.
Police say the 43-year-old Sunshine man was arrested on Tuesday and remanded to appear in court on Thursday.
China’s aggression destabilises the region and threatens democratic freedoms, Taipei says
Taiwan has hit back at the former Australian prime minister Paul Keating after he said Taiwan was “not a vital Australian interest” and labelled it a “civil matter” for China.
In an appearance at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Keating dismissed global concerns about China’s aggression towards Taiwan and criticised Australia’s growing bipartisan pushback.
Continue reading...Parliamentary committee on human rights warns Coalition’s plan could disproportionately impact disadvantaged groups
The Coalition’s voter ID bill may discourage people from voting and “no evidence” has been provided regarding how it could prevent fraud, a parliamentary committee has warned.
The joint committee on human rights, chaired by Nationals MP Anne Webster, issued the warning in a report on Wednesday. It called on the special minister of state, Ben Morton, to explain how the bill would be effective and its impact on vulnerable groups.
Continue reading...Former Australian prime minister also says Britain ‘like an old theme park sliding into the Atlantic’ compared to modern China
The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has denounced the US- and UK-backed plan for nuclear-powered submarines as “like throwing a handful of toothpicks at the mountain”, declaring Australia should avoid being drawn into a war with China.
The former Labor leader on Wednesday accused the major Australian political parties of losing their way on foreign policy, while dismissing the credibility of the UK’s “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific region.
Continue reading...Cape York man, 60, was fishing on his property when the reptile clamped its jaws around his boots
A Queensland man has escaped the jaws of a crocodile by stabbing it in the head with a pocket knife as it dragged him into a river on Cape York.
Parks and Wildlife officers said the 60-year-old had been fishing on his property on the banks of a remote part of the McIvor River, near Hope Vale, last Wednesday.
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Continue reading...Officials feared ‘freedom day’ would bring more cases and hospitalisations. But a month on, the numbers continue to drop
When New South Wales exited lockdown in October, the premier, Dominic Perrottet, warned that with extra freedoms would likely come extra cases and hospitalisations.
Modelling predicted up to 1,900 daily cases during the state’s first easing and a second, larger peak around Christmas. The Burnet Institute forecast hospitalisations would peak between 2,286 and 4,016 in Sydney by the end of September.
Continue reading...String of scandals involving some of Australia’s biggest business names prompts parliamentary probe
After a series of high-profile cases of corporate failures, the way big businesses in Australia treat Indigenous customers will be examined by a parliamentary inquiry.
The destruction of Juukan Gorge by Rio Tinto was one of the most recent inexcusable acts, but it is not alone. Woolworths was forced to abandon plans to build a liquor warehouse near three dry Aboriginal communities. Earlier this year, Telstra was fined $50m by the federal court which found it had exploited Indigenous customers by signing them up for phone contracts they could not understand or afford.
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Continue reading...Perth police have called off search for Paul Millachip, 57, saying it is apparent that attack was fatal
The wife of a man who is believed to have been killed by sharks off Australia’s west coast has paid tribute to a “wonderful father” .
Paul Millachip, 57, who is understood to have been from the UK, was last seen in the water on Saturday by two teenagers who witnessed what they believed was a shark attack off Port Beach in North Fremantle, Perth.
Continue reading...Nurse accused of faking a Covid vaccination; Adem Somyurek appears before Ibac; Victoria records 1,126 cases and five deaths; NSW reports 187 cases, seven deaths; ACT has 13 new cases; Barnaby Joyce slams ex-PMs’ criticisms of PM; vaccine boosters roll out; NSW scraps home-visit limits for vaccinated. Follow the day’s news
Health minister Greg Hunt is also on the interview circuit this morning and has been asked if booster shots will be required for people to keep the freedoms given to those who have been double vaccinated:
Not at this stage. it is not our medical advice. What a booster is, is exactly as the name says. It adds to your vaccination. It boosts your vaccination. It boosts your vaccination and protection.
We are opening up today across the country to anyone who is six months or more from their vaccination.
Continue reading...Constant change in the climate policies of Australia and New Zealand has been a huge disappointment to Pacific island nations
When I came into office as president of Kiribati in 2003, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had released its third assessment report and, like my predecessors, I believed the report’s projected rise in sea levels posed a real threat to the survival for those of us on the frontline. Accordingly, in my first address at the UN General Assembly in 2004 I drew attention to the dangers posed by climate change, especially to small island nations like Kiribati and other Pacific island countries.
The fact that no other leader made any reference to it in their statement worried me and I wondered whether I might be making a fool of myself, especially when the focus of international attention at the time was on more real and present threats like terrorism. Thankfully by the next assembly, in 2005, other Pacific island leaders had joined the call for action. This has gathered great momentum in the years since.
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