Category Archives: Australia news

Porch Diaries: portraits from Melbourne’s coronavirus lockdowns – photo essay

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Comprising more than 200 colour photographs, Porch Diaries is a series by Melbourne-based photographer Alana Holmberg featuring portraits of neighbours, strangers, workers and loved ones who passed by her Brunswick home during the 2020 pandemic lockdown months in Melbourne. With the recent spike in cases, Melbourne was back in lockdown and Holmberg was back on the porch

30 March 2020

Some days I feel like a creep. My spot up here on the porch, partially obscured behind the lemon tree, kept vertical by a stake, and the row of spindly roses. Twice this morning my presence went undetected. A metre or so above the path, I sit on a worn-out couch with a worn-out laptop, my eyes flicking from screen to street and down to screen again. Who else will pass by today? Mara, my housemate’s dog, takes her usual position to my right, propped up on my thigh. We watch and we wait.

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The island with no water: how foreign mining destroyed Banaba

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The Kiribati island survived droughts due to sacred caves that captured rainfall but rampant phosphate extraction ruined this precious resource

  • Read more of our Pacific Plunder series here

The last decent rain on Banaba was more than a year ago.

Without rain, people on the isolated central Pacific island, which is part of the country of Kiribati, have been forced to rely on a desalination plant for all their water for drinking, bathing and growing crops.

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Scott Morrison digs in against deeper cuts to emissions ahead of G7 summit

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Prime minister to say it should be up to sovereign nations to chart their own course and Australia does not support ‘setting false deadlines’

Scott Morrison is resisting international pressure to lock in more ambitious climate commitments, declaring Australia opposes setting targets for certain parts of the economy or “false deadlines for phasing out specific energy sources”.

Before he sets off for the G7 summit in the UK later this week, the prime minister will use a foreign policy speech to say that “ambition alone won’t solve the problem of actually reducing emissions”.

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Hundreds arrested in global crime sting after underworld app is hacked

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European and Australian police join forces with FBI to seize weapons, drugs and $148m in cash

A global sting in which organised crime gangs were sold encrypted phones that law enforcement officials could monitor has led to more than 800 arrests in 18 countries.

The operation by the FBI and Australian and European police, ensnared suspects in Australia, Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East involved in the narcotics trade.

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Australia news live: Victoria reports two new Covid cases; renewed calls for Biloela family to be resettled

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Both new coronavirus cases are linked to current outbreaks

It’s been a bit of a heavy morning so far, so here is some dinosaur news from the Guardian’s amazing new science reporter Donna Lu:

A new species of dinosaur discovered in south-west Queensland has been officially recognised as the largest ever found in Australia and among the biggest in the world.

The Australotitan cooperensis, a plant-eating dinosaur of the family known as titanosaurs, likely lived between 92m and 96m years ago, during the Cretaceous period.

Related: New species of dinosaur – up to 30m long – confirmed as largest ever found in Australia

Less than 3% of Australians over 16 have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus but health chiefs are tipping numbers will soar in coming weeks.

The sluggish national rollout of jabs continues to spark concern with Melbourne in the grips of another lockdown-inducing outbreak, reports Matt Coughlan from AAP.

There are multiple strains and we will continue to see Covid adapt and mutate – that’s what these viruses do.

We’re likely to see other strains emerging. The sooner we can get the world vaccinated, the less likely it is that it can mutate.

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Australia urged to take control of Cocos .cc internet domain to foil scammers and child abuse sites

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Cocos (Keeling) Islands suffix is one of the most commonly used top-level domains for hosting child abuse material, researchers say

The .cc internet domain for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands should be claimed by the Australian government to stop it being abused by scammers and people hosting child abuse websites, Australian National University researchers have said.

Under the system that governs domain names on the internet, the .cc suffix was set up in the 1990s for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands territory, far off the coast of Western Australia.

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Daughter of Biloela asylum seekers evacuated from Christmas Island for urgent medical care

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Australian-born Tharnicaa Murugappan in Perth hospital with suspected blood infection after Tamil family’s 18-month detention on island

The youngest daughter of the Tamil family from Biloela who have been detained for more than 18 months on Christmas Island has been evacuated to Perth for emergency medical care, advocates have said.

Tharnicaa Murugappan has been evacuated along with her mother, Priya, after being hospitalised with a suspected blood infection.

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NSW buys 60,000 hectares of farmland near Broken Hill for outback nature reserve

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Purchase of Langidoon and Metford sheep stations is the second-biggest national parks land procurement in NSW in the last decade

The New South Wales government has purchased more than 60,000 hectares of farmland near Broken Hill for an outback nature reserve, home to at least 14 threatened species.

In an effort to expand conservation efforts in the traditionally underrepresented far west of the state, on Monday NSW environment minister Matt Kean announced the government had finalised the purchase of the neighbouring Langidoon and Metford sheep stations.

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Victoria records two new Covid cases as official says Delta variant likely leaked from hotel quarantine

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New variant probably came through an importation from overseas via hotel quarantine, infectious diseases expert says

A senior public health official says her “strong hypothesis” is that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus that caused a second outbreak in Melbourne was caused by a hotel quarantine leak.

Victoria reported two new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday from 29,816 tests on day 10 of Melbourne’s fourth lockdown.

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A journey down WA’s mighty Martuwarra, raging river and sacred ancestor

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Traditional owners are standing together to protect the Fitzroy – a ‘beautiful, living water system’. Just watch out for the bird-sized spiders …

A Nyikina man, Mark Coles Smith, and his fellow travellers began their 400km journey down the mighty Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) on a flood plain covered in giant spiders.

“Bird-sized” spiders were clinging to the canopy, jostling for space on branches protruding above flood water that stretched for kilometres in every direction.

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Craig Kelly adviser Frank Zumbo charged with alleged historical sexual offences

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The long-serving staffer faces 18 charges, including seven counts of aggravated indecent assault, related to allegations made by four women

Frank Zumbo, the long-serving staffer of federal MP Craig Kelly, has been charged with 18 offences including seven counts of aggravated indecent assault relating to allegations made by four women.

Police in New South Wales said Zumbo, 53, was arrested at the Sutherland police station on Friday afternoon, following an investigation into historical sexual assault offences.

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Pat Dodson attacks ex-WA Aboriginal affairs minister for joining Rio Tinto board

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Dodson criticises ‘poor judgment’ but Ben Wyatt says move will pressure other companies to appoint Aboriginal people to boards

Labor senator Pat Dodson has launched a scathing attack on the former West Australian Aboriginal affairs minister, Ben Wyatt, for joining the board of mining giant Rio Tinto, saying it showed “poor judgment” and would “do nothing” to restore Rio’s reputation after the Juukan Gorge disaster.

Wyatt, a Yamatji man, was the Aboriginal affairs minister and treasurer in WA from 2017 to March this year when he retired from parliament.

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Uefa and UK discuss easing restrictions for Euro 2020; Putin blames money for EU delay of Sputnik V approval

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UK currently has the strictest entry requirements of any host country; Russian president spoke as Serbia starts to produce vaccine

Here are some of the key developments over the past few hours:

A quarter of elderly black people in the UK have not been vaccinated, recent figures show, despite signs that hesitancy is improving generally.

Nearly six months after the government kicked off the country’s most ambitious vaccination campaign, almost one in four black people over the age of 70 were not vaccinated as of 26 May, compared with 97% of white people of the same age.

Related: One in four elderly black people in the UK still not vaccinated

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Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 7 production temporarily shut down due to coronavirus case

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Paramount Pictures pauses filming after a routine test confirms positive Covid case on set

Paramount Pictures has temporarily shut down production on the British set of Tom Cruise’s seventh Mission: Impossible film after someone tested positive for coronavirus.

“We have temporarily halted production on Mission: Impossible 7 until June 14th, due to positive coronavirus test results during routine testing,” a Paramount spokesperson said on Thursday. “We are following all safety protocols and will continue to monitor the situation.”

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George Pell: news organisations fined more than $1m over reporting of sexual abuse verdict

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Victoria’s supreme court fines the Age $450,000 and News Corp more than $400,000 for contempt of court over coverage of cardinal’s initial conviction

A dozen of Australia’s largest media organisations have been fined more than $1m for contempt of court over their coverage of Cardinal George Pell’s sexual abuse conviction.

On Friday the Victorian supreme court justice John Dixon ruled the 12 organisations had “usurped” the role of the court by breaching a suppression order on Pell’s now-quashed conviction for child sexual abuse.

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New David Attenborough film looks at Australia’s bushfires and the climate crisis – video trailer

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Breaking Boundaries: the Science of our Planet is a new Netflix documentary from Sir David Attenborough that visits scientists working on melting ice, the degradation of the Amazon, and the loss of biodiversity, and looks at the 2019-2020 'summer from hell' black summer bushfires that destroyed large swathes of Kangaroo Island

• David Attenborough Netflix documentary: Australian scientists break down in tears over climate crisis

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‘Discussions are happening’ to resettle refugees from Australia’s offshore regime in New Zealand

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Asylum seekers medically evacuated from Nauru and PNG may also be considered in move advocates describe as a massive step forward

New Zealand’s government is now in regular conversation with Australia about how to resettle refugees from Australia’s offshore detention regime – a significant step towards a resolution, advocates say, eight years after New Zealand first offered.

Immigration minister Kris Faafoi confirmed to the Guardian that “New Zealand’s offer to Australia to resettle 150 refugees being held offshore still stands” and that “officials continue to explore how this might be implemented”.

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Coronavirus Australia live update: regional Victoria restrictions easing but Melbourne lockdown remains; more NSW hotspots

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Talks continue between the state and the federal government on financial assistance as Melbourne faces second week in lockdown. Follow the latest news

Victoria’s press conference ends – we are just waiting for Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg now

Professor Allen Cheng is asked whether Victoria is just unlucky,or whether there are other factors that mean outbreaks spread further than in other states and says:

I think it is really difficult to know. We thankfully don’t have a huge sample size to say what might be different or not. I think there’s always an element of luck in this.

As I said before, if you have a person in the community with infection, it depends very much on who they are. And we certainly that it is 80% of people with COVID don’t transmit to anyone. 20% of them transmit at least to someone at a very small number transmit to a lot of people. So there is an element of luck to it.

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‘Critical’ lack of Covid vaccine supply in Melbourne forcing GPs to turn people away

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Undersupply so severe amid outbreak clinic forced to turn away residents of two care facilities

Melbourne GPs say they are being forced to turn away huge numbers of vaccine-seeking locals, including busloads of vulnerable residents from care facilities, because the commonwealth’s supply of doses has not increased to match the explosion in demand.

The latest outbreak has caused a huge increase in demand for the Covid-19 vaccine in Victoria, and the state is now recording daily vaccination numbers of above 20,000 in primary care, up from the roughly 2,300 doses administered on 24 May.

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ABC reappearance at Senate hearing could reveal details of agreement with Christian Porter

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Questions need to be answered after broadcaster refuted claims made by minister, Sarah Hanson-Young says

The ABC will be hauled back before Senate estimates to discuss details of its agreement with Christian Porter that led the industry minister to drop his defamation suit against the broadcaster.

The Senate communications committee will hold a hearing as early as next week at which the ABC managing director, David Anderson, will be asked who proposed the settlement and why the public broadcaster agreed to it.

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