Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Chinese ambassador says consumers not being served well by ‘politically motivated’ ban on tech firm’s entry into 5G network
The Australian government’s ban on Huawei’s participation in building the nation’s 5G network remains a “sore point or thorny issue” between the two countries, the Chinese ambassador said on Monday, as he criticised the government for discriminating against a Chinese company.
Cheng Jingye dismissed concerns Huawei may pose a threat to Australia’s national security given its links to the communist Chinese government, and said Australia’s ban was “politically motivated”.
In an interview on Channel Ten’s The Project, Parker said he had been told to leave RFS leading to the hashtag #IStandWithPaulParker trending in Australia
The Rural Fire Service is investigating claims that a volunteer firefighter who told the prime minister to “get fucked from Nelligen” in a viral news clip was “sacked’”by his local brigade.
Paul Parker told Channel Ten’s The Project on Sunday that he was chastised by the RFS for directing the expletive toward Scott Morrison and that he had been booted from the organisation, contrary to reports from the time that he had been stood down due to exhaustion.
Labor says National party seats shortchanged after projects in Liberal-held, non-rural seats got nearly $110m
Labor is accusing the government of shortchanging rural areas through a $150m sports fund that was overwhelmingly spent in marginal seats during the election campaign.
Treatment of refugees and asylum seekers ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading’, but does not warrant prosecution, ICC office says
Australia’s offshore detention regime is a “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” and unlawful under international law, the international criminal court’s prosecutor has said.
But the office of the prosecutor has stopped short of deciding to prosecute the Australian government, saying that while the imprisonment of refugees and asylum seekers formed the basis of a crime against humanity, the violations did not rise to the level to warrant further investigation.
A Channel 4 employee was taken to hospital to be tested for coronavirus on Thursday after being met at the channel’s London headquarters by health officials in protective clothing, it has emerged.
The person is understood to have been on holiday recently in China in the last month and had some concerns about feeling unwell. They are not a journalist and had not been to Wuhan, the Chinese region at the centre of the outbreak.
“On Thursday a member of staff at Channel 4 who had travelled to Asia within the last month felt unwell.”
“As a precautionary measure they decided to seek medical advice and, in line with the latest public health advice regarding the Coronavirus, they were taken to hospital for a precautionary test. We have informed our staff of this and continue to follow all the latest public health guidance.”
Singapore has reported nine new coronavirus cases – its biggest daily increase, according to the Straits Times. The new cases take Singapore’s virus tally to 67.
Six of the new cases are linked to the Grace Assembly of God church which is now the biggest cluster of cases in Singapore with 13 in total.
Coronavirus: 9 new cases confirmed in Singapore, 6 of these linked to Grace Assembly church which has become the biggest cluster https://t.co/eybB3Xrpwp
NSW detective is defending charges of illegally making recordings during investigation into disappearance of three-year-old William
William Tyrrell’s foster family has blasted the “personal agendas” of police behind the prosecution of former detective Gary Jubelin, saying the investigation into the boy’s disappearance has been “cavalier” following his removal.
Jubelin is defending four charges of illegally recording elderly neighbour Paul Savage during an investigation into the 2014 disappearance of the three-year-old from the NSW mid-north coast.
Parliament sits for the final time this week, with threats to the government’s promised surplus back in the spotlight. All the day’s events, live
The auditor-general will appear at the Senate inquiry into the sports grant affair in about 30 minutes.
Asked if he voted for Llew O’Brien in the deputy speaker ballot, Barnaby Joyce says it was a secret ballot and “the reason ballots are secret is that you don’t tell people how you vote. Otherwise don’t bother having them”. Which leads to this exchange:
Elsewhere in the country rainfall offered relief from the bushfires, but caused flash flooding as well
Tropical Cyclone Damien made landfall in Western Australia over the weekend and lashed north-western parts of Australia with heavy rain and damaging winds. Unrelated to the cyclone, eastern Australia also recently had some substantial rainfall totals. While rain came as welcome relief after the severe bushfires, flash floods have now swept across the region.
Storm Hervé marked the end of unseasonable warmth across parts of France and Germany last week as the system brought a cooler airmass, strong winds, and fresh, heavy snowfall to the Alps. Prior to this, south-west Europe as a whole was experiencing exceptional heat, and temperatures rocketed to 29.6C in Valencia in Spain on Tuesday, setting a new all-time February record.
Areas of Australia have burnt during the recent bushfire season that used to be too wet to burn. In this first episode of The Frontline, a new series that shows how everyday Australians are already experiencing the climate crisis, we go inside the new fire zone
Former NSW Labor MPs allegedly conspired over mining properties in Bylong Valley, near Mudgee
The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, a former New South Wales premier, Morris Iemma, mining figures and public servants are expected to give evidence in the trial of former mining ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald.
The former state Labor MPs – with Obeid’s son Moses, 50 – are being tried in the NSW supreme court over their alleged conspiracy to commit an offence between 2007 and 2009, when Macdonald was mineral resources minister and the Obeids owned land in coal country.
Prime minister says reality for Indigenous children a ‘national shame’ as Senate turns up the heat on the government to release the PM&C report into the sports grants affair. All the day’s events, live
Scott Morrison:
There remains much to do.
And we will do it differently by working together. By moving from a fixation with what is going wrong to a focus on strength.
Scott Morrison:
I am saddened that we have not met the target for child mortality but I draw hope and result from the fact that we are making progress in tackling the risk factors.
More Indigenous mothers are attending antenatal care in the first trimester and more are going to at least five antenatal sessions.
A paper in the Lancet medical journal, published online, should dispel some of the worries around reported deaths of some babies born to women who have fallen ill with what is now being called COVID-19 infection.
The authors say preliminary evidence suggests the new coronavirus cannot be passed to the baby in the womb.
Hi, Amy Walker here taking over the blog from my colleague Simon Murphy.
Patients who were treated by the two Brighton GPs who have been diagnosed with coronavirus are being traced by health officials, the BBC has reported.
The fallout from last week’s leadership spill continues, with rebel MPs refusing to fall into line. All the day’s events, live
There is a real pattern emerging of Nationals MPs wearing green ties with dark blue suits, and really I can see why the party room is in revolt.
Josh Frydenberg is yelling again, and I can’t transcribe it, because GUESSWHOTHATFINANCIALGENIUSWASSIRTAXALOT is doing my head in, and really, you only get one life.
Australia’s catastrophic bushfire season has taken 33 lives, destroyed thousands of homes, shrouded cities in smoke and devastated the country’s unique wildlife. Guardian Australia surveys the damage
Australian victim Lisa Dallow awake in a serious but stable condition two months after New Zealand volcano erupted
An Australian woman has come out of her coma, two months after the volcano eruption on New Zealand’s White Island, to be told the blast killed her husband and daughter.
Adelaide woman Lisa Dallow has woken from her coma in Melbourne’s Alfred hospital and is in a serious but stable condition.
The four-to-three split decision giving Aboriginal Australians special status is a major defeat for the deportation powers of the home affairs department
The high court has decided that Aboriginal Australians are not aliens for the purpose of the constitution, a major defeat for the deportation powers of Peter Dutton’s home affairs department and a significant development in the rights of Indigenous Australians.
In a four-to-three split decision on Tuesday the high court ruled that Aboriginal people with sufficient connection to traditional societies cannot be aliens, giving them a special status in Australian constitutional law likely to have ramifications far beyond existing native title law.
Move follows underpayment scandal that resulted in staff being back-paid almost $8m in wages and superannuation
Celebrity chef George Calombaris has put much of his restaurant empire into voluntary administration.
Advisory and investment firm KordaMentha has been appointed as administrators of 22 companies in the Made Establishment Group, which KordaMentha says operates 12 restaurants and food venues in Melbourne.