Category Archives: Australia news

ANU launches review into investment portfolio after pro-Palestine protests

Posted on by

Australian National University cites change in community sentiment around deriving revenue from weapons manufacturers

The Australian National University (ANU) is launching a review into its investment portfolio, acknowledging “changing expectations” in the community around deriving revenue from weapons manufacturers.

It follows an announcement by the University of Sydney to hold a similar review after weeks of lobbying from pro-Palestine student encampments.

Continue reading...

Queensland state MP Darren Zanow to retire after dementia-causing brain disease diagnosis

Posted on by

Ipswich West’s LNP representative informed of his microvascular ischemic disease the day he was sworn in

A 52-year-old Queensland MP has announced his resignation from state parliament after being diagnosed with a brain disease that leads to early-onset rapid developing dementia.

Ipswich West LNP MP, Darren Zanow, has announced his imminent retirement after he was diagnosed with microvascular ischemic disease.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Family wants answers after ‘horrific’ deaths of Australian couple and relative in Philippine hotel

Posted on by

Sydney man David Fisk, his Philippine-born partner Lucita Cortez and her relative discovered with hands and feet tied at Lake Hotel in Tagaytay

The family of two Australians found dead at a luxury hotel in the Philippines alongside a Filipina relative say they are praying “for answers and the truth in this horrific matter”.

The bodies were discovered with their hands and feet tied in a room at the Lake Hotel in Tagaytay, a resort city south of the nation’s capital.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

How Sydney’s endless rain is ruining football seasons and breaking young hearts

Posted on by

As Saturday after Saturday gets wiped out by bad weather, clubs are drowning in a sea of unplayed fixtures

The first thing Jamie Amendolia’s boys ask him when he picks them up from school every afternoon is the same: “Is training on? Is the game on? Has it been called off? Are we playing?”

Both of his sons, Sebastian, 10, and Alexander, eight, play football at Enfield FC in Sydney’s inner west. They’re footy fanatics. Except both have had their season thrown into chaos by the wet weather that has hit and bogged down Sydney’s weekends for months.

Continue reading...

Australian CEOs made less in 2023-24 but still earned on average 50 times a typical worker’s wage

Posted on by

Audit also finds CEOs are more likely to be sacked than not get their bonus

Chief executives across Australia’s largest companies are making slightly less money, but are still taking home on average 50 times the pay package of a typical worker.

In its annual audit of CEO pay, the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (Acsi) found chief executives at the 100 largest listed businesses averaged $5m in the 2023 financial year, down from $5.2m the previous year.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Documents reveal why Australia voted yes in key UN motion on Palestinian membership

Posted on by

Exclusive: Internal advice shows Australia never seriously considered voting against resolution to boost status of Palestinian mission, despite positions of US and Israel

It’s an issue that has sparked domestic and international debate and helped fuel the defection of Fatima Payman from the Labor party.

Now, newly obtained internal documents shed light on the Australian government’s conditions for recognising the state of Palestine – and the factors it weighed up before voting “yes” in a highly anticipated UN vote on 10 May.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Lucrative building contracts for Exclusive Brethren schools awarded to businesses run by church members

Posted on by

Donations to school building funds are tax deductible, with Brethren-owned businesses across three states the beneficiaries

Schools set up by the Exclusive Brethren sect have spent millions of dollars with businesses owned by church members on major building projects, including to a company majority-owned by the powerful Hales family, a Guardian Australia investigation has found.

The Brethren’s OneSchool Global (OSG) schools are registered charities in Australia and exempt from income tax. The schools also have building funds endorsed for deductible gift recipient status.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Elizabeth Struhs: members of Toowoomba sect believed eight-year-old would rise from the dead, court hears

Posted on by

Elizabeth’s father wrote she ‘never said she wanted to stop insulin’, according to messages read to Queensland’s supreme court

Members of a Toowoomba religious sect believed that eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs would rise from the dead after she died of diabetic ketoacidosis due to the withdrawal of her insulin in 2022, a court has heard.

On Thursday the Queensland supreme court held the second day of a trial of the 14 adult members of the group for her murder and manslaughter.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese appeals to western Sydney amid Muslim voting campaigns on Gaza war

Posted on by

The seats of Blaxland and Watson have higher percentages of Muslim voters than Labor’s 2022 winning margin

Anthony Albanese has appealed to voters in Labor’s heartland seats in western Sydney not to dump the party over the war in Gaza, insisting his MPs are “working hard to deliver” practical improvements.

The leader of the house, Tony Burke, and the education minister, Jason Clare, are among the Labor MPs considered to be vulnerable to campaigns run by new groups known as The Muslim Vote and Muslim Votes Matter.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia news live: religious sect allegedly thought 8-year-old diabetic ‘should not use insulin’, court told; Alice Springs curfew won’t continue

Posted on by

The curfew declaration will conclude at 12.55pm today, local time. Follow the day’s news live

The mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Paterson, spoke to ABC News Breakfast just earlier as authorities meet to determine whether a three-day curfew on the central Australian town will be extended.

He is “still waiting to hear” whether the curfew will be extended – a decision for the police commissioner. Asked whether he believes it should be extended, Paterson says:

It’s obviously worked in the CBD, but we are hearing that it is pushing crime out into the suburbs. So we’ll wait to see what happens. Ultimately, the community gets to have a breath while there’s extra resources and police in town, so we’ll just wait to see what’s decided …

The curfew is a reaction to events over the past week or so, and we can’t continue to put these in. We need to think about the long-term solutions.

Continue reading...

‘Africa’s most resilient lion’ and his brother filmed making record-breaking swim across dangerous African river

Posted on by

A team led by an Australian researcher captured the pair swimming about 1.5km after two failed attempts

A record-breaking swim by two lion brothers across a predator-filled African river has been documented by a team led by a researcher from an Australian university.

The two-male lion coalition was filmed crossing the Kazinga Channel in Uganda at night using high-definition heat detection cameras on drones.

Continue reading...

Alice Springs mayor expects ‘double-edged sword’ curfew to be extended

Posted on by

‘We need to think about the long-term solutions’ to violence, says Matt Paterson

The mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Paterson, says curfews are a “double-edged sword” that must not keep being used, ahead of a possible extension of the town’s three-night lockdown.

A 72-hour stay-at-home order was issued on Monday for the Northern Territory community after a spate of violent incidents, including a brawl involving 80 people and a knife attack on a 42-year-old woman.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Father charged with three counts of murder after young children killed in Sydney house fire

Posted on by

Man, 28, facing three domestic violence murder charges and five counts of attempted murder following weekend blaze at Lalor Park

A father has been charged with murder and attempted murder after three of his children died and four more were injured alongside their mother in a house fire in Sydney’s west.

The 28-year-old man was charged with three counts of domestic violence murder, five counts of attempted domestic violence murder and destroying or damaging property with intent to endanger life relating to domestic violence.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

Continue reading...

Concern over fumes and contaminated runoff as Derrimut chemical factory fire still smoulders in Melbourne

Posted on by

Fire expected to burn for days as local residents warned to avoid nearby waterways

Residents in Melbourne’s west have been told to avoid lingering fumes and potentially contaminated runoff after a chemical factory fire sent toxic smoke billowing over the city.

Firefighters battled the blaze throughout the day and night after a large explosion at the Derrimut factory on Wednesday morning.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Anger over delay to end of no-grounds evictions in NSW as renters face ‘perfect storm’

Posted on by

Premier Chris Minns says government is still ‘grappling’ with issue that has already been outlawed in most states

The New South Wales government has been accused of failing renters by delaying legislation to end no-grounds evictions as demand for legal aid spikes across Sydney.

Despite both major parties pledging to abolish no-grounds evictions in the 2023 election, the government is yet to introduce legislation to implement the much-anticipated reforms.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Chinese navy destroyer and helicopter shadowed Australian warship during high-profile standoff, documents show

Posted on by

Exclusive: Australian helicopter was outside Chinese territorial waters when forced to manoeuvre to avoid fighter jet flares in ‘unsafe’ operation

An Australian helicopter was flying south-east of China’s Shandong peninsula but outside its territorial waters when a Chinese fighter aircraft released flares in its path, new documents show.

Guardian Australia can reveal that Australia’s HMAS Hobart warship was also being shadowed by a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) navy destroyer and another Chinese helicopter at the time of the 4 May standoff.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Booktopia will not fill orders and may not issue refunds, say administrators

Posted on by

Customers left out of pocket who placed orders have now become, in effect, unsecured creditors

The administrators handling the collapse of Booktopia have announced that orders placed with Australia’s largest online bookseller will not be filled – and there may be no refunds either.

It means out of pocket customers who placed orders prior to the company entering voluntary administration have now become, in effect, unsecured creditors – which voids store credits and gift cards too.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Religious group accused of killing Elizabeth Struhs believed ‘God would heal’ her, Queensland court hears

Posted on by

Members of Toowoomba religious group the ‘Saints’ face judge-only trial on murder and manslaughter charges

A religious group accused of killing an eight-year-old girl believed “God would heal” her diabetes after they withheld life-saving insulin, a judge has heard.

The group of six men and eight women, including the girl’s parents, refused to enter pleas to either murder or manslaughter in the Brisbane supreme court on Wednesday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

AI datacentres to strain Australia’s energy supply, spike prices without change, expert says

Posted on by

UBS analyst says tech firms must ensure datacentres have ability to power up and down like aluminium smelters

Soaring electricity demand from datacentres could strain supplies and contribute to much higher prices unless tech firms agree to act like aluminium smelters that can power up or down to support the grid, an energy analyst says.

The demand, fuelled in part by the growth of energy-hungry artificial intelligence services, could require between 3.3 and 5 gigawatts of additional capacity by 2030, or about 15% of total load, according to Tom Allen, an analyst with investment bank UBS.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Greens and academics criticise appointment of antisemitism envoy – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Flights have been cancelled or delayed out of Brisbane airport this morning as thick smoke blankets the city.

According to the Brisbane airport website, nine domestic flights and two international flights have been cancelled. On social media, the airport wrote that widespread fog across Brisbane was “slowing movements on ground and limiting visibility.”

Flights are still departing but there are delays due to the reduced visibility.

Participants will be able to check accessible scorecards that will show what services DES providers offer and how they rate for quality and effectiveness, helping them make an informed choice when selecting their provider.

Continue reading...