Category Archives: Australia news

NSW Coalition at risk of collapse after Nationals leader backs Wes Fang in spat with Liberals

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Dugald Saunders took issue with Liberal leader Mark Speakman who sacked Fang from the shadow ministry over comments about a Wagga Wagga trip

The sacking of a Nationals MP from the New South Wales shadow ministry after he accused the Liberals of “pretending” to care about the Riverina has threatened the state’s longstanding Coalition.

The NSW Liberal party room will meet on Tuesday to discuss the rupture, which is the greatest threat to the Coalition since the then deputy premier John Barilaro threatened to walk away from the agreement over the koala wars in 2020.

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Labor hikes international student visa fees as sector warns of ‘death by 1,000 cuts’

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Australia’s charge out of step with competitors – ‘why would you waste that much money when you have more surety of going to the USA?’

The Albanese government has more than doubled the international student visa application fee from $710 to $1,600 in the latest measure to reduce arrivals to Australia.

The government announced the move on Monday, confirming pre-budget speculation in the tertiary education sector that fee hikes will be used in addition to the international student cap as a means to clamp down on net migration.

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‘Weird and cool’: bilby genome sequence could help to save the species

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Bilbies have the biggest genome of any marsupial, which could be down to how it evolved its incredible sense of smell

Genetic research has revealed the threatened Australian native bilby – with its ridiculously oversized ears and stretched snout – does not only look odd from the outside.

“Bilbies are weird and cool. The genome has been fascinating,” said Prof Carolyn Hogg, of the University of Sydney, who led research that sequenced the greater bilby’s genome for the first time.

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Melbourne airport staff accused of smuggling drugs for organised crime cartels

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Scores of workers allegedly breached security checks, and air crew accused of stashing illegal products in false-bottom suitcases

Dozens of Melbourne airport staff have been accused of working for organised criminals trying to smuggle drugs into Australia.

Aviation workers were the subject of a Border Force investigation targeting criminals in airport supply chains.

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Explorer ‘who named Australia’ to be reburied in Lincolnshire village where he was born

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Hundreds to attend Donington service for Matthew Flinders, whose remains were found during digging for HS2

When the remains of the famous explorer Capt Matthew Flinders – credited with naming Australia – were discovered during the digging for HS2, Jane Pearson knew he had to be brought back home to Donington.

This little village in Lincolnshire, where Flinders was born in 1774, has been preparing for his arrival for months, and is gearing up to welcome a host of Australian dignitaries travelling over for his reburial in July.

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Fatima Payman leaves Labor with little choice after vowing to cross floor again

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Australian senator has given voice to many who condemn the Israel-Gaza war while earning the scorn of her caucus colleagues

Fatima Payman’s career as a Labor politician is over.

The indefinite suspension from the Labor parliamentary caucus that Anthony Albanese imposed on her during a short conversation at the Lodge in Canberra on Sunday afternoon has the same effect as expulsion. She will not return to the fold.

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Beer advertisements shown to kids during streamed TV programs like Lego Masters

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David Pocock urges government to fix gap in the law after 28 complaints, but Labor says it will not support amendment

Independent senator David Pocock is urging the government to fix a gap in the law that allows alcohol to be advertised during children’s television programs when streamed rather than using a traditional TV aerial.

Pocock has identified 28 complaints about alcohol being advertised during programs including Lego Masters, Australian Idol and The Voice and during the broadcast of Carols in the Domain around segments featuring Disney characters and The Wiggles.

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Fatima Payman indefinitely suspended from Labor caucus – as it happened

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This blog has now closed

“I think he has the capacity,” Marles says when asked if Joe Biden has what it takes for the next four years. “I’ve got no doubt there will be no issues in relation to that.”

Marles says Biden administration doing ‘fantastic job’

We work very closely with him and we are very pleased with how we’re progressing with the United States both in terms of their position in the world, but also in terms of our equities, most significantly, of course, the Aukus arrangements that we have in place.

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Fatima Payman suspended from Labor caucus over vow to cross the floor again on Palestine

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Party spokesperson says WA senator ‘placed herself outside the privilege’ of participation in caucus after defiant TV interview

WA Labor senator Fatima Payman has been indefinitely suspended from the Labor party’s parliamentary caucus after she was summoned to a meeting with the prime minister at the Lodge on Sunday.

Payman’s previous one-week caucus suspension was upgraded after a Sunday morning television interview in which she vowed she was prepared to repeat her rebellion of last week and cross the floor in the Senate to support recognition of a Palestinian state.

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Three women killed, more injured in bus crash in Whitsunday region

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Bus was carrying 33 people when it came off Bruce Highway north of Gumlu on Sunday morning after crashing into four-wheel drive towing a caravan

Three women have died after the coach they were travelling in collided with a caravan in the Whitsunday region on Queensland’s northern coast.

The bus was carrying 33 people when it came off the Bruce Highway, 8km north of Gumlu, on Sunday morning after crashing into the caravan, which was being towed by a four-wheel drive vehicle.

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Defence probed 16 alleged links between personnel and extremism in two years

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Exclusive: Documents reveal the ADF has conducted more than a dozen investigations into allegations about army and navy personnel since 2022

There have been at least 16 investigations into defence personnel allegedly engaging with extremism or supremacism in the last two years, documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal.

Of the cases, which span February 2022 to April 2024, nine are still “pending”while two are open. Sixteen concerned army personnel in various units and two in the navy.

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Are Australia’s public transport discounts for seniors too generous? Are they fair?

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School and tertiary students receive concessions, but their fares are still more than three times those offered to seniors in some states

It’s the uncomfortable question few politicians would dare to ask. Are generous travel discounts afforded to Australia’s older citizens, especially self-funded retirees who are not means tested, sustainable? Moreover, are they fair?

Seniors have long enjoyed heavily subsidised public transport fares across Australia. But as the population ages, public finance strains and a cost-of-living crisis weighs disproportionately on younger generations, some are suggesting a rethink.

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Cheap AI voice clones may wipe out jobs of 5,000 Australian actors

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Industry group says rise of vocal technology could upend many creative fields, including audiobooks – the canary in the coalmine for voice actors

Voice actors say they’re on the precipice of their work being replaced completely by artificial intelligence, with corporate and radio roles already beginning to be replaced by cheap generative AI clones.

While a high-profile actor like Scarlett Johansson can make the most prominent AI company in the world back down within a day from using her voice likeness in their AI products, everyday actors working on commercials, audiobook and video games worry they risk having their own voices cloned, or miss out on work entirely due to the rise of AI voice clones.

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Eastern Australia to shiver through cold week as snow predicted for ski fields in Victoria and NSW

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Weather bureau says the cold front sweeping from SA to Tasmania will move up into alpine areas to bring much-needed snowfalls

Large parts of Australia will shiver through much of the coming week, with temperatures as much as 4C below average expected in some regions.

The Bureau of Meteorology says ski fields could also expect some much-needed snowfalls in time for school holidays in some of the eastern states.

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Mushroom gummies: powerful cannabis product could have caused ‘disturbing hallucinations’ and hospitalisations

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The recall of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies has sparked concerns that the product contains psychoactive cannabinoids

A cannabis product could be to blame for more than six people being hospitalised with symptoms including seizure-like twitching, vomiting and hallucinations after consuming gummies marketed as containing mushrooms, according to experts.

The Cordyceps and Lion’s Mane flavours of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies were recalled this week by Food Standards Australia New Zealand after reports of hospitalisations in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

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Drugs, alcohol and ‘horrendous’ attacks in detention centres leave ABF reeling

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Exclusive: Commissioner Michael Outram appeals for greater powers to manage ‘high level of risk’ and worrying rates of addiction in facilities

The commissioner of the Australian Border Force is appealing to the government for increased search powers to crack down on drugs and alcohol in immigration detention, where he says addiction is rife and violence is on the rise.

After “quite horrendous assaults” on Serco staff in detention centres, Michael Outram said expanded search powers “would be of great assistance” to reduce the “high level of threat and risk” posed by detainees with access to drugs and alcohol.

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Debt collection giant Panthera puts large parts of its business into administration

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A Guardian Australia investigation has revealed Panthera had circumvented blacklisting designed to stop it operating in Victoria

Major private debt collector Panthera Finance has appointed new directors and put parts of the company into administration as it seeks to sell off its scandal-plagued business.

Last month, Guardian Australia revealed Panthera, one of the country’s biggest private debt collection firms, had circumvented a blacklisting designed to stop it from operating in Victoria and continued to strike debt purchase deals within weeks of regulatory warnings.

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Indonesian boys jailed by Australia claim no translation provided in court

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Minors who were locked up in adult prisons for people smuggling say they could not understand proceedings and thought they were going home

Vulnerable Indonesian children say they were either given no interpreter or an interpreter who spoke the wrong language during deeply flawed people smuggling prosecutions, leaving them unable to understand court proceedings before their imprisonment by Australia in maximum security adult jails.

The Australian government last year agreed to pay $27.5m in compensation to more than 200 Indonesians who were wrongfully prosecuted and detained as adult people smugglers while they were children.

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‘You can expect everything’: what next for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks?

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Site’s edge on whistleblowing is gone and its co-founder must recover, yet their resilience may make revival a possibility

As Julian Assange enjoys his first weekend of freedom in years, there appeared to be no question in the mind of his wife, Stella, about what the family’s priorities were.

The WikiLeaks co-founder would need time to recover, she told reporters after they were reunited in his native Australia, after a deal with US authorities that allowed him to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified defence documents.

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Nine Entertainment staff pass no-confidence motion over chief executive after announcement 200 jobs will be cut

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Chief executive Mike Sneesby says ‘economic headwinds’ and end of Meta deal are to blame for lost jobs

Staff at Nine Entertainment passed a motion of no-confidence in chief executive Mike Sneesby on Friday afternoon and are preparing to take industrial action, after Sneesby announced that 200 jobs would be cut from the company.

Sneesby told staff he is cutting 200 jobs due to the “economic headwinds” facing the media, with up to 90 positions to go on legacy mastheads the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Australian Financial Review.

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