Murdoch was responding to a question at AGM about time given to ‘climate deniers’ by News Corp outlets in Australia
News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch has said “there are no climate change deniers around I can assure you” after he was asked at the corporation’s AGM why his company gives them “so much airtime” in Australia.
Murdoch was speaking in New York on Wednesday when he received a question from a proxy for Australian activist shareholder Stephen Mayne.
Continue reading...Temperatures top 40C in Victoria’s north as up to 11 properties hit by fire in South Australia, while NSW and Tasmania face difficult conditions
Record-breaking spring temperatures helped spark and fan bushfires across the country on Thursday, forecasting a potentially devastating bushfire summer.
In Victoria, 100km/h winds fanned more than 60 blazes, as an unprecedented heatwave moved north to south, drawing comparisons with the “worst conditions you’d see in February or March” from the state’s emergency services minister Lisa Neville.
Continue reading...Extreme heat hits across the country as parts of Victoria prepare for worst possible bushfire conditions on Thursday
All of Australia’s mainland states, and the Northern Territory, had areas that reached more than 40C on Wednesday, as a code red bushfire warning was issued for parts of Victoria for Thursday.
By 3pm AEDT on Wednesday, the highest temperatures recorded were 43.4C at Smithville in New South Wales and 42C at Walpepup in Victoria. Ballera in Queensland reached 43.7C, Warburton in WA got 43.8C, Nullarbor in South Australia recorded 46.6C and Lajamanu in the Northern Territory had hit 42.7C.
Continue reading...The announcement by Bond University and RMIT follows the royal’s interview about his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein
Two Australian universities have severed ties with a business mentoring charity founded by Prince Andrew after the royal’s train-wreck interview about his links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Pitch@Palace program – founded by the prince in 2014 – supports entrepreneurs and start-up companies and gives them the opportunity to pitch their idea to business leaders at places including Buckingham Palace.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Survey reveals almost all are paid per delivery and a quarter of riders have been in an accident
Food delivery bike couriers are being underpaid by up to $322 a week compared with minimum rates of pay and superannuation in the transport award, according to new union statistics.
The Young Workers Centre – an initiative of the Victoria Trades Hall Council – conducted a survey of more than 240 riders, revealing most are engaged on a “take-it-or-leave-it” basis and almost all are paid per delivery, with no minimum rates of pay.
Continue reading...Indian Ocean dipole events, linked to bushfires and floods, are becoming stronger and more frequent, scientists say
Global heating is “supercharging” an increasingly dangerous climate mechanism in the Indian Ocean that has played a role in disasters this year including bushfires in Australia and floods in Africa.
Scientists and humanitarian officials say this year’s record Indian Ocean dipole, as the phenomenon is known, threatens to reappear more regularly and in a more extreme form as sea surface temperatures rise.
Continue reading...People with asthma or respiratory illness should stay inside, health authorities warn
Sydney woke up to a thick blanket of smoke over the city on Tuesday as New South Wales headed into the first of two “tough days” this week, with temperatures likely to rise to the 40s and little-to-no rainfall forecast.
Most of the state’s east coast was under severe or very high fire danger ratings, with more than 50 bushfires burning, of which 28 remained uncontained.
Continue reading...Australia can’t go on downplaying the largest economic shift in world history. Read the former PM’s speech in full
Taking some longer view of the strategic scenery, I have come to some key beliefs about the changes that are taking place globally.
The international system is fundamentally anarchic in structure. Two world wars in a century and Vietnam, Iraq, Syria gives the evidence of that. We should not confuse the relative peace of the last 30 years with the anarchy which lies latent.
Continue reading...Dan McGarry of the Daily Post told at Brisbane airport the Vanuatu immigration service had barred him from flying back to the island country
The media director of a Vanuatu newspaper whose visa renewal was refused this month has been barred from flying home to Vanuatu from Brisbane with his partner.
Dan McGarry, who has lived in Vanuatu for 16 years, applied to have his work permit renewed earlier this year but it was rejected. McGarry believes his visa was refused due to articles he had published about China’s influence in Vanuatu.
Continue reading...Former Wallabies player’s comments in sermon follow controversy over his sacking for social media posts
Scott Morrison has labelled comments by sacked rugby union star Israel Folau linking devastating bushfires to Australia passing laws to legalise abortion and same-sex marriage “appallingly insensitive”.
Although both the prime minister and the Labor leader Anthony Albanese defended Folau’s right to express the view, condemnation on Monday was swift and bipartisan.
Continue reading...Deputy leader says he does not regret linking the government’s climate change policy to the bushfires
The Greens MP Adam Bandt has defended his party colleague labelling politicians from the major parties “arsonists” while bushfires swept through swathes of New South Wales and Queensland last week.
Bandt noted that the Greens senator Jordon Steele-John was among the generation of young people “terrified” about the impact of climate change, and said the point of the remarks was to highlight Australia’s inaction on reducing fossil fuel emissions.
Continue reading...Some retailers are giving inaccurate advice to shoppers in states where it is illegal to ride e-scooters on public roads or footpaths
Retailers are preparing for a Christmas boom in the sale of electric scooters, even though it is illegal to ride them on public roads or footpaths in several states.
Federal and state regulation has struggled to keep up with the technology, leaving consumers at risk of inadvertently breaking the law.
Continue reading...Labor leader denies non-attendance at Victoria’s Labor party conference sparked by threats of a union walkout
Controversial union boss John Setka has told the federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, to “grow some balls”, amid the latter’s no-show at Victoria’s Labor party conference.
Albanese denied his non-attendance at the annual meeting in Melbourne this weekend was sparked by threats of a union walkout.
Continue reading...Severe isolated thunderstorms forecast in Queensland, which could create dry lightning strikes that start more fires
Forty-degree heat and catastrophic conditions in Western Australia and lightning strikes in Queensland could intensify fires over the weekend as Australia enters its second week of sustained bushfires.
As of Saturday morning, conditions in New South Wales had eased slightly but the NSW Rural Fire Service said an uncontrolled bushfire burning through more than 100,000 hectares near Sydney’s northwestern outskirts was unlikely to be contained before weather conditions worsen.
Continue reading...US reportedly offering to rescue Australian families of Isis fighters trapped in Syria
Australia may be forced to accept three Islamic State fighters in Turkish custody as Ankara begins repatriating foreign fighters to their homelands.
Turkey has so far sent up to 10 fighters back to Britain, the US and Germany, saying it cannot continue to house them, even as the governments have rejected taking their fighters back and have cancelled passports.
Continue reading...After six hellish years inside Australia’s offshore detention regime, Boochani reflects on the country that rejected him, his new-found freedom and the friends he left behind
“One day,” Behrouz Boochani said, observing the bleakness of the abandoned Manus detention centre, its dark form illuminated by wood stripped from the buildings being burned for light, “we will meet in some other place, far away from here.”
That was two years ago, in the middle of a warm November night, when Boochani helped smuggle this reporter into the decommissioned Manus Island detention centre where 400 men were holding out against being forcibly removed: rationing their dwindling supply of food and medicine, guarding against the violent police crackdown they knew was coming, repairing the freshwater wells that had been deliberately spoiled by the retreating guards.
Continue reading...University writes to students on exchange in Hong Kong as campuses become focus of battles between police and protesters
The University of Sydney has urged Australian students on exchange in Hong Kong to return home as pro-democracy protests intensify on university campuses, the ABC is reporting.
The university has written to students after Hong Kong University and other institutions suspended classes for the last few weeks of semester.
Continue reading...Fire danger rating in parts of NSW rises to severe as hot, dry, windy conditions end a brief reprieve of bushfire-hit areas of Australia
• If you are in a bushfire affected area stay tuned to your local emergency broadcaster. Full alerts can be found here for NSW and here for Queensland
A fresh emergency warning was issued for the Hawkesbury on Sydney’s outskirts on Friday for a fast-moving fire, as hot, dry and windy conditions returned to bushfire-hit areas of New South Wales.
The warning was issued for a persistent 80,000-hectare blaze at Gospers Mountain, which was burning in the direction of Colo Heights. Those in the town should leave immediately towards Wilberforce, the Rural Fire Service warned.
Continue reading...How poignant that Behrouz was freed from Australia’s grip and welcomed by Christchurch, a city that knows prejudice only too well
Today our world is a little freer, a little fairer, and a little more hopeful. Today, one less innocent man is incarcerated in Australia’s detention camp on Manus Island, guilty only of seeking refuge from persecution. Behrouz Boochani was no ordinary detainee. The Iranian Kurdish journalist and author became the voice of Manus detainees, and with it the persistent conscience of us all as we learned of the atrocities committed by the Australian government on its remote Pacific island detention camps.
How poignant that he was finally freed to visit Christchurch, a city that knows only too well the violence and suffering borne of prejudice. A city that wrapped its arms so warmly around its refugee community after a terror attack just seven months ago, to heal their wounds and stand for inclusion. Behrouz has said that Christchurch has taught the world about kindness this year. He is also quick to note that the prejudice that leads to violence against refugees is the same that underpins policies allowing cruel treatment of them by governments such as Australia’s. For him, the plight of refugees and displaced persons across the globe right now is connected to the fear-mongering politics of Donald Trump and Scott Morrison.
Continue reading...Official reception highlights New Zealand’s differences with Australia over immigration
The city of Christchurch has welcomed Behrouz Boochani with a civic reception and a traditional Māori mihi whakatau – a formal welcome – as his presence, and liberty, in New Zealand once again underscores the country’s political differences with Australia over immigration.
Boochani was formally greeted from the plane by the mayor of Christchurch and the city’s Māori leaders, who told him he was welcomed by the mountains, the rivers, and the people of the city.
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