Category Archives: Australia news

Former Young LNP member says party threw him ‘under the bus’ over offensive video

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Barclay McGain, who was forced to resign over schoolies video denigrating Indigenous culture, accuses Queensland LNP of not practising what it preaches on personal responsibility

A former Young Liberal National party member forced to resign over a series of offensive social media posts has accused the Queensland LNP of “throwing young teenagers under the bus” and of not practising what it preaches on personal responsibility.

Guardian Australia revealed two weeks ago that federal MP Andrew Laming had sacked electorate officer Barclay McGain, 20, who was already under LNP investigation in relation to an offensive video from last year, following questions about subsequent social media posts and messages. McGain also quit the party.

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Coronavirus live news: German district placed in local lockdown after meat plant outbreak

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Texas ‘wide open for business’; WHO urges dexamethasone steroid boom; Saudi Arabia closes borders to foreign pilgrims

Novak Djokovic, the men’s world No 1 tennis player, has tested positive for Covid-19, the Serbian said in a statement on Tuesday.

Croatia’s Borna Ćorić, Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and Viktor Troicki have previously tested positive after playing in Djokovic’s Adria Tour exhibition tournament in the Balkan region.

Related: Novak Djokovic tests positive for Covid-19 amid Adria Tour fallout

Italy has seen a surge in bicycle sales since the government ended its coronavirus lockdown as people steer clear of public transport and respond to government incentives to help the environment.

Some 540,000 bikes have been sold nationwide since shops across the country reopened in early May, according to sector lobby Ancma, a 60% increase in the first month compared to the same period in 2019.

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Sydney’s water supply at risk because of department failure on conservation, audit finds

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NSW audit office blasts water conservation efforts and finds Sydney Water was two years too late in responding to recent drought

The New South Wales government has failed to investigate or implement water conservation measures for greater Sydney, leaving the city’s water supply vulnerable to the effects of population growth, drought and climate change, the state’s auditor has found.

The report by the NSW audit office also found Sydney Water was two years too late in increasing funding for water conservation in response to the recent drought.

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Labor calls for royal commission into Coalition’s robodebt scheme

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Opposition says inquiry could investigate scheme’s human cost, including reports some victims took their own life

Labor has called for a royal commission into the robodebt program, heaping pressure on the Coalition to accept some form of independent inquiry into the unlawful scheme that some families claim led victims to take their own lives.

In a statement issued on Tuesday the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, and frontbenchers Bill Shorten and Mark Dreyfus argued a royal commission was needed to probe the creation and administration of the debt recovery scheme, which saw Centrelink send at least 470,000 unlawful demands for money over four years.

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Global report: South Korea has Covid-19 second wave as Israel ponders new lockdown

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New infections in and around Seoul; Spain reports 36 new outbreaks; New Zealand strengthens borders

Authorities in South Korea have said the country is experiencing a second wave of the coronavirus in and around Seoul, and warned that stronger physical-distancing measures will be reimposed if the daily increase in infections does not come down.

Confirmation of the new wave came as the Israeli government said a lockdown could be reintroduced amid a sharp rise in cases, and a team of contact tracing experts prepared to deploy to the Australian state of Victoria to tackle a new outbreak in Melbourne.

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Victoria’s coronavirus spike: is this a second wave, and what’s causing the clusters?

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The state took swift action to contain Covid-19 but it is the site of 83% of Australia’s new cases. We examine why

While Victoria took swift action to contain the spread of Covid-19, the state is experiencing a concerning increase in virus cases. This is despite restrictions such as school closures and limits on the numbers of people in venues continuing longer than most other jurisdictions.

In the past week, 116 of Australia’s new cases – 83% of them – were reported in Victoria. It has also placed pressure on testing in some of the most affected council areas including Hume, Brimbank, Moreland, Darebin, Cardinia and Casey. Almost one in five Victorians live across these areas. For almost one week, new cases in double digits have been reported in the state, with the department of health on Monday announcing 16 new cases overnight.

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Australia coronavirus news: Victorians warned to avoid Melbourne hotspots amid fears of second wave – live updates

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Authorities ‘strongly discourage’ travel to and from six council areas that are home to most of the country’s new coronavirus cases. Follow live

Victoria has officially announced its new ministry.

Queensland has reported zero coronavirus cases overnight.

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Coronavirus live news: Bolsonaro silent as Brazil passes 50,000 deaths; global cases reach 9 million

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China halts imports from food plant where 481 tested positive; New York shops and bars reopen; Lisbon brings back lockdown restrictions

The Netherlands reported zero new deaths from Covid-19 on Monday, the first day since the beginning of March that the country’s pandemic death toll has not risen.

Deaths reported by Dutch national institute for public health are not necessarily from the past 24 hours, so it cannot be confirmed that no one has died from coronavirus-related illness. But it is the first day since 12 March that no death has been reported. The country’s total death toll is 6,090.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world since the outbreak began has passed 9 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The US-based research university, which keeps a tally of official statistics, said that so far 9,003,042 cases had been reported. The United States is the world’s worst affected country by case numbers, with nearly 2.3 million cases alone, followed by Brazil with nearly 1.1 million, then Russia, with nearly 600,000.

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Victoria to extend state of emergency for four more weeks after spike in Covid-19 cases

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Queensland declares southern state a ‘hotspot’ while South Australia reconsiders decision to reopen its border

The Victorian government has announced it will extend its state of emergency for at least four more weeks and ramp up its police enforcement of lockdown rules after a spike in Covid-19 cases.

The surge has also prompted neighbouring South Australia to reconsider its decision to reopen its border, while Queensland has declared all of greater Melbourne a Covid-19 hotspot.

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Coronavirus live news: pandemic is accelerating, says WHO chief

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Brazil passes 1 million infections; Australia struggles with new cases; Greta Thunberg says similar urgency needed for climate change as for Covid-19

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday hailed “hero” doctors who died during the coronavirus epidemic, comparing them to battlefield medics from past wars.

Putin, who spoke ahead of next month’s controversial vote that is expected to extend his hold on power until 2036, also promised awards and more bonuses for health personnel.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday that Turkey had lost some ground in its battle with the coronavirus but a focus on hygiene, masks and social distancing will protect people and help the economy rebound in the second half of the year.

This month, Ankara opened restaurants and cafes and lifted weekend stay-at-home orders and most intercity travel bans. But since 1 June, new Covid-19 cases have doubled to nearly 1,600 per day, raising concerns of a re-emergence.

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Australia’s Covid-19 restrictions and coronavirus lockdown rules explained: how far can I travel, and can I have people over?

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How far can you drive and what are the travel restrictions in NSW, Queensland and Victoria? How many people can you have over at your house in Tasmania, ACT, SA, WA or NT? Untangle Australia’s Covid-19 laws and guidelines with our guide

Australians have been slowly emerging from Covid-19 lockdowns since the federal government announced a three-stage plan in May to ease restrictions across the country.

It is up to each state and territory to decide when and how far they will relax restrictions.

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Can Australia resolve its trade tensions with China? – Australian politics live podcast

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This week Katharine Murphy talks with the Australian trade, tourism and investment minister, Simon Birmingham. They discuss the challenges of economic recovery after the bushfires and coronavirus, and address the escalating trade actions from China. Will Birmingham appease an angered Beijing and reverse China’s tariffs? Or will the relationship see a continued decline in civility?

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Australia coronavirus update: major cyber attack under way as Victoria records 12 new Covid-19 cases – live news

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A sophisticated state-based actor is targeting all levels of government and companies in a range of sectors, PM reveals. Follow live

Also, the Five Eyes finance ministers met. Given what their operatives do, a meeting seems superfluous, but ok.

Today Australia hosted a call with the Finance Ministers of the “Five Eyes” nations – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States.

It was the first of what will be regular calls among the countries to discuss the economic issues associated with COVID-19.

I guess when you don’t have the Global Times, you have to be a little more overt in your silent diplomacy.

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Coronavirus live news: Brazil surpasses one million cases

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Country hits grisly milestone as WHO says pandemic is entering ‘new and dangerous phase’

In Australia, authorities are watching the rise in coronavirus cases in Victoria closely as the state prepares to further ease restrictions from Monday.

Gyms, cinemas, indoor sports centres and concert venues are scheduled to reopen on Monday while cafes, restaurants and pubs will increase capacity from 20 people to 50.

Brazil has passed a total of more than one million coronavirus cases, and nearly 50,000 deaths, according to its health ministry data, in a new low for the world’s second worst-hit country.

Brazil has recorded 1,032,913 confirmed cases, second only to the United States, with 1,206 new deaths reported on Friday to take the total official fatalities to 48,954, the ministry said.

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Australia is under cyber-attack from ‘state-based actor’, Scott Morrison says

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Australian prime minister says widespread assault on political and private sector organisations has been going on for months but is increasing in frequency and scale

A wide range of political and private sector organisations in Australia have come under cyber-attack carried out by a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor”, the Australian government has revealed.

Scott Morrison disclosed the far-reaching attacks at a media conference in Canberra on Friday, while his defence minister declared that malicious cyber activity was “increasing in frequency, scale, in sophistication and in its impact”.

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Coronavirus Australia update: Northern Territory to reopen borders in July as Victoria records 18 new Covid-19 cases – question time live

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Michael Gunner declared the NT Covid-free and will prepare to allow domestic travel; person who attended Melbourne Black Lives Matter protest among new Vic cases. Follow live

That leads to this exchange:

Tony Smith: The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. The Prime Minister needs to withdraw that imputation.

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

My question is to the Prime Minister. Under this Prime Minister, Australia has entered its first recession in three decades. Australia now has an effective unemployment rate of 11.3%. How many unemployed Australians don’t have a job because the Prime Minister deliberately excluded them from JobKeeper?

No-one in this country is unemployed because of the Government’s responses.

People are unemployed in this country, people have been reduced to zero hours which is the same thing, people have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic!

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Coronavirus live news: New Zealand reports another new case as Brazil nears 1m infections

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Deaths worldwide near 500,000; US health expert says country is ‘still in first wave’; Argentinian president enters voluntary isolation amid coronavirus surge. Follow the latest updates

The hospitalisation of Honduras president with Covid-19 and pneumonia Wednesday has drawn attention to another country struggling under the pandemics strain as cases rise sharply in the capital, AP reports.

President Juan Orlando Hernández announced late Tuesday that he and his wife had tested positive for the virus. Just hours later he was hospitalised after doctors determined he had pneumonia.

From March to 7 June, Honduras confirmed 6,327 coronavirus infections. In the 10 days since, it added 3,329 more, a surge that has come after the government began a gradual reactivation of the economy.

The full story on Australia’s unemployment rate now:

Australia lost a further 227,000 jobs between April and May, resulting in a total loss of 835,000 jobs in seasonally adjusted terms since March and a 0.7% jump in unemployment to 7.1%.

Related: Australia loses 227,000 more jobs, taking unemployment to 7.1%

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Tashi: 25 years on and more than 1 million copies sold but still an ‘enchanted’ delight

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Author Anna Fienberg tells the stories behind her bestselling children’s books, from her mother’s working-class childhood to the character’s origin story

People roll their eyes when Anna Fienberg starts a story with: “Well, it was like this.” The phrase has become unmistakable to readers of her Tashi series for children – a device preceding the telling of an adventure story – and Fienberg can’t help but use it when she’s asked how she came to write, with her mother Barbara, about a magical boy who flees on a swan from his home country to Australia.

“Well, it was like this,” Fienberg says, as she tells Guardian Australia of how only recently, 25 years after the stories were first published, she learned of Tashi’s true origins.

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Papua New Guinea chiefs call for halt to plan for country’s largest ever mine

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Locals say the Sepik river region must be protected from ‘exploitation and destruction from outsiders’

Chiefs from 28 haus tambarans – “spirit houses” – representing 78,000 people along Papua New Guinea’s remote Sepik river have formally declared they want a proposal for the country’s largest ever mine halted.

PanAust, an Australian-registered miner ultimately owned by the Chinese state-owned Guangdong Rising Assets Management, has proposed building a gold, silver and copper mine on the Frieda river, a tributary to the Sepik.

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Coronavirus live news: New Zealand to trace 320 ‘close contacts’ of virus pair who stopped to meet friends

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Beijing raises alert level and grounds hundreds of flights; India’s official death toll leaps by more than 2,000 to reach 11,903; Brazil suffers record case increase

Around 11,000 mink at a farm in Denmark will have to be culled after they were found to be infected with the coronavirus, the country’s authorities have said.

The outbreak is the first in Denmark, the world’s biggest producer of mink skins, but comes shortly after the virus was found at 13 mink farms in the Netherlands, where about 570,000 mink have been ordered culled.

If you’re planning to meet Vladimir Putin in the next few weeks, be warned: you will have to pass through a special disinfectant tunnel to get to the Russian president.

Putin’s official spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has confirmed a report by Russian state television that three airport-style tunnels have been built for the president: one at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, where he has reputedly being doing much of his work during the pandemic, and two at the Kremlin.

В резиденции Путина для защиты от коронавируса установили специальный туннель. Он предназначен для дезинфекцииhttps://t.co/jjwWbuZ2EX pic.twitter.com/h62KWARvsr

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