Category Archives: Australia news

Trump flags ‘major tariff on pharmaceuticals’ as trade chief says US ‘running up score’ on Australia

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US president says he will shortly announce the new tariff on pharmaceuticals but does not give any details

Donald Trump says the US will soon introduce “a major tariff on pharmaceuticals” designed to force more manufacturing giants to relocate to America, a move that could further strain relations with Australia.

His comments come hours after his trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said the US should be “running up the score” with Australia and using money generated by tariffs to address a broader $1.2tn trade deficit with the rest of the world. The US maintains a trade surplus with Australia.

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Coalition releases long-awaited modelling showing energy plan could drive down household gas bills by 7%

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Peter Dutton says policy would be ‘gamechanger’ despite experts questioning whether it would work

The Coalition’s plan to create a domestic gas reservation for the east coast would drive down household gas bills by 7% and industrial gas bills by 15%, newly-released estimates.

The opposition’s long-awaited modelling by Frontier Economics, released on Tuesday evening, estimated the changes would bring down new domestic gas supplies to $9 or $10 a gigajoule, and came after experts shed doubt on whether the policy could drive down prices through a government market intervention.

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Albanese accuses Coalition of ‘gaslighting’ public over energy as Dutton touts economic credentials in first leaders’ debate

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Prime minister asks ‘how can you believe what they’ll do after the election’ as opposition leader accuses Labor of having the wrong priorities

Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of “gaslighting” Australians on key Liberal policies in a spirited first leaders’ debate of the election campaign which focused heavily on energy, health and tax policies.

Neither man made a major misstep in the Sky News forum on Tuesday evening in western Sydney, where Albanese was voted the winner in a poll of 100 undecided voters. Albanese won 44 votes, Dutton won 35 and 21 remained undecided.

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LNP orders review of Queensland’s emissions reduction target of 75% by 2035

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Conservation groups condemn the move along with the government’s decision to extend the life of coal power stations

Queensland’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2035 could face the scrap heap, with the state energy minister ordering a review of the ambitious legislation.

The Clean Economy Jobs Bill was passed into law last year, with the backing of both Labor and the Liberal National party.

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Stella prize 2025: shortlist entirely women of colour for the first time in award’s history

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Michelle de Kretser and journalist Amy McQuire among six authors in contention for $60,000 prize for women and non-binary writers

The Stella prize, Australia’s award for women and non-binary authors, has made history this year with a shortlist featuring only works by women of colour, for the first time since the award was established in 2013.

Announced on Tuesday morning, this year’s shortlist includes Darumbal and South Sea Islander journalist Amy McQuire’s essay collection, Black Witness (winner of the 2025 Victorian premier’s award for Indigenous writing), about the failures of mainstream media and power of Indigenous journalism; two-time Miles Franklin-winner Michelle de Kretser’s Theory & Practice, a reckoning with fiction, memoir and colonialism; and playwright, poet and author Samah Sabawi’s family memoir, Cactus Pear For My Beloved, tracing her roots from British-occupied Palestine through to contemporary Queensland.

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Could the Coalition’s spectacular backdown be the circuit breaker that Peter Dutton needs?

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Junking a signature policy to focus on his pet areas could help get his rocky campaign back on track

As mid-election mea culpas go, it was a big one.

After campaigning for months on a crackdown on those “entitled” Canberra public servants, those fat-cat bureaucrats supposedly taking hard-working Aussies for a ride with their generous work-from-home conditions, Peter Dutton’s latest policy backdown has seen the Coalition spectacularly concede defeat on plans to “bring our public servants back to work” and apologise for raising it.

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Earless dragons were presumed extinct in Australia – now Daisy and Kip have sniffed out 13 of them

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Zoos Victoria wildlife detection dogs uncovered the ‘bloody gorgeous’ reptiles in return for treats and cuddles

Wildlife detection dogs successfully sniffed out 13 critically endangered earless dragons in previously unknown burrows in Melbourne’s west, after a training program launched by Zoos Victoria in 2023.

The Victorian grassland earless dragon – Australia’s most imperilled reptile – had not been seen for 50 years and was thought extinct before its remarkable rediscovery on privately owned grassland in 2023.

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Dutton playing ‘Donald Trump anti-migration card’ in plan to slash international students, higher education peak body says

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The Coalition would retain Labor’s cap on the private sector but cut an extra 30,000 places at universities

The Coalition has been accused of using the “Donald Trump anti-migration card” with its election policy to slash international students, as the university sector warns it favours the private vocational education and training (VET) sector.

On Sunday, Peter Dutton announced he would reduce the number of international students to 240,000 a year, a reduction of “over 80,000 in annual new overseas student commencements compared with 2023 levels”, he said.

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Falling Australian dollar spells bad news for travellers and shoppers

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The value of one Australian dollar dropped to a low of 59.64 US cents, its lowest point since April 2020

Consumers and travellers will face higher prices after the Australian dollar fell to Covid-era lows, as markets reel from Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff plan.

Fears of a global recession dragged the Australian dollar sharply lower on Monday against the country’s major trade partners and to its lowest point against the Euro, pound and US dollar since 2020.

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Asian markets plunge further amid tariff fallout; Trump says ‘sometimes you have to take medicine’ – business live

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Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbles nearly 9% on Monday as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 8% and South Korea trading temporarily halted amid Trump tariff concerns

Hong Kong stocks have plummeted more than 9% at open, while Singapore stocks dropped over 7%, according to reports.

Hong Kong and Chinese stocks dived on Monday as markets around the world crumbled in the face of the widening global trade war and fears it will unleash a deep recession, Reuters says.

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Asian markets plunge further amid tariff fallout; Trump says ‘sometimes you have to take medicine’ – business live

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Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbles nearly 9% on Monday as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 8% and South Korea trading temporarily halted amid Trump tariff concerns

Hong Kong stocks have plummeted more than 9% at open, while Singapore stocks dropped over 7%, according to reports.

Hong Kong and Chinese stocks dived on Monday as markets around the world crumbled in the face of the widening global trade war and fears it will unleash a deep recession, Reuters says.

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‘We’ve made a mistake’: Peter Dutton backs down on work from home policy

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The Coalition has also walked away from plans to sack 41,000 public service employees, raising questions about how it will pay for major election policies

The Coalition spectacularly reversed its policy to restrict work from home arrangements and sack 41,000 government employees, walking away from plans to make major changes to the public service.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has admitted he “made a mistake” and “got it wrong” with the unpopular plan, backing down on the signature policy and raising questions about how the Coalition will pay for major election promises it said it would fund with savings from cutting the public service.

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Rainbow lorikeet is our most commonly spotted bird, Australia’s largest citizen science event finds

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About 57,000 people participated in the Aussie Bird Count, with the lorikeet joining the noisy miner and magpie in the top three spots

The rainbow lorikeet and its colourful plumage has topped Australia’s largest citizen science event as the most numerous bird recorded across the country.

More than 4.1m birds were counted as part of BirdLife Australia’s annual Aussie Bird Count, a week-long event which involved 57,000 participants across the country last October.

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Rainbow lorikeet

Noisy miner

Australian magpie

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

Welcome swallow

Galah

Silver gull

Australian white ibis

House sparrow

Little corella

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Rainbow lorikeet is our most commonly spotted bird, Australia’s largest citizen science event finds

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About 57,000 people participated in the Aussie Bird Count, with the lorikeet joining the noisy miner and magpie in the top three spots

The rainbow lorikeet and its colourful plumage has topped Australia’s largest citizen science event as the most numerous bird recorded across the country.

More than 4.1m birds were counted as part of BirdLife Australia’s annual Aussie Bird Count, a week-long event which involved 57,000 participants across the country last October.

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Rainbow lorikeet

Noisy miner

Australian magpie

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

Welcome swallow

Galah

Silver gull

Australian white ibis

House sparrow

Little corella

Continue reading...

Victoria police pay $90,000 to climate protester who claimed head was slammed into wall, door and ground

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Exclusive: State makes no admissions as it settles case with activist who alleged police misconduct during 2019 arrest at Melbourne mining conference

A climate protester who alleged their head was repeatedly slammed by members of Victoria police’s riot squad in 2019 has reached a settlement with the state.

Timothy Buchanan, 39, alleged their head was slammed into a metal wall, the ground and a glass door that their head was then used to open, during their arrest at a protest at an international mining conference in Melbourne.

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Man charged after allegedly attempting to open plane door on flight to Sydney

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Australian federal police say the man, 46, allegedly tried to open the rear emergency exit door of the plane from Malaysia on Saturday

A Jordanian national has been charged after he allegedly attempted to open the doors of a Sydney-bound plane mid-flight.

Australian federal police (AFP) said the man, 46, allegedly tried to open the rear emergency exit door of the plane, travelling from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday night.

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Port of Darwin operator says Albanese and Dutton are treating it like ‘a political football’ in election

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Labor and Coalition would both end Chinese company Landbridge’s long-term lease of strategically important asset

The Chinese company that controls the Port of Darwin has accused Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton of treating it like “a political football” in the middle of a federal election campaign.

Federal Labor and the Coalition have both announced that if elected on 3 May they would end Landbridge’s long-term lease of the Port of Darwin, arguing it is strategically important and should be controlled by an Australian entity.

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Cameraman injured after football kick; PM visits flood-hit Queensland – as it happened

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Poll points to risks in key seats for Labor

We’ve made it to a week into the election campaign. So who’s winning?

At the end of week one, it was clear that Albanese won more days than Dutton and therefore won the week. But there are still four more to go, and anything can happen in an election.

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Is Anthony Albanese worried Jacinta Allan’s poor standing will hurt his election chances in Victoria?

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The PM has so far avoided the Victorian premier on his campaign trail. It has some state Labor MPs worrying she could be made a scapegoat

During the 2022 election campaign, Anthony Albanese waited until the 30th day to hold a press conference with the then Victorian premier, fearing Daniel Andrews’ association with Covid lockdowns.

When the two finally appeared together, Andrews didn’t hold back. He launched into an impassioned tirade against Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg, revisiting the fraught themes of the pandemic, while Albanese stood beside him, visibly uneasy. After that, Andrews largely stayed off the campaign trail.

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$500,000 stolen in Australian super fund data breach

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Super industry’s peak body says majority of hacking attempts stopped but money lost by a small number of customers

Hackers have targeted Australian superannuation funds this week, with a small number of customers losing a combined half a million dollars, and compromising some members’ data, the industry’s peak body says.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) said in a statement on Friday that hackers attempted to breach the cyber defences of a number of superannuation funds last weekend. While the majority of attempts were stopped, several companies were affected, it said.

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