Category Archives: Australia news

Australian who says he invented bitcoin ordered to hand over up to $5bn

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US court orders Craig Wright to share cryptocurrency haul with the estate of American programmer David Kleiman

The Australian man who claimed to have invented cryptocurrency bitcoin has been ordered to hand over half of his alleged bitcoin holdings, reported to be worth up to $5bn.

The IT security consultant Craig Wright, 49, was sued by the estate of David Kleiman, a programmer who died in 2013, for a share of Wright’s bitcoin haul over the pair’s involvement in the inception of the cryptocurrency from 2009 to 2013.

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Tanya Day’s arresting officer tells inquest he didn’t think she needed medical attention

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Constable dismisses suggestion that according to police checklist he should have taken her to hospital

The police officer who arrested Tanya Day at Castlemaine train station said he did not think she needed medical attention despite police guidelines stating that intoxicated people who cannot provide intelligible answers should be sent to hospital.

Senior Constable Stephen Thomas told an inquest into the 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman’s death in custody that he also did not tell her she had been placed under arrest, saying it was “the most low-key arrest I have ever done”.

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Dave Chappelle under fire for discrediting Michael Jackson accusers in Netflix special

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Standup comedian also takes aim at callout culture that sees public figures held to account by audiences

Dave Chappelle has come under fire for his latest Netflix special in which he claims he does not believe Michael Jackson sexually assaulted young boys, and makes jokes at the expense of Jackson’s accusers.

In a standup set that seemed designed to provoke precisely the backlash that it was critiquing, Chappelle took aim at a prevailing callout culture that sees celebrities being held to account by audiences and in the media for perceived or actual crimes and for the offensive things they say.

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Labor says electric cars ‘unstoppable’ and Coalition wants to make Australia ‘like Cuba’

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Mark Butler signals Labor won’t retreat from policy following election defeat

The shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, has doubled down on the need for policy to drive the transition to electric vehicles in Australia, arguing electrification is “unstoppable” and declaring Australia will become like Cuba if the Coalition continues to obstruct progress.

In his first significant comments post-election about the controversy around Labor’s policies to curb emissions from vehicles, Butler has used a speech to a conference in Sydney to blast the brutal partisan campaign the Morrison government ran during the federal election contest.

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Asylum seekers held in Papua New Guinea blocked from talking to lawyers or doctors

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Inquiry hears that asylum seekers detained in PNG do not have access to phones, preventing medical evacuation

Asylum seekers held in a Papua New Guinean detention facility are being prevented from talking to lawyers and doctors, blocking them from medical evacuation to Australia approved under new medevac laws.

David Manne, the executive director of Refugee Legal, told a Senate inquiry on Monday that he had lost contact with one client who had been approved for urgent evacuation weeks ago but was then detained at the Bomana detention facility in Papua New Guinea.

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The asylum seekers held in a PNG prison have a choice: return to death or literally rot in jail | First Dog on the Moon

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They have already been suffering in inhumane conditions for six years. All this is well known and makes no difference

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More Hongkongers look to move to Australia amid growing political unrest

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Migration agent says housing and other economic factors are also driving residents to consider moving

Hong Kong’s continuing political unrest has led to a surge in applications from residents seeking to emigrate, including to Australia, and some migration agents are reporting a doubling in inquiries as the protests run into their third month.

Australia was the top destination for Hong Kong emigrants in 2018 – nearly a third (2,400) of the 7,600 Hongkongers who left last year went to Australia.

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Australia entering ‘second convict age’ as imprisonment rates soar

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Incarceration rates have risen 130% since 1985, according to new research by Labor MP and economist Andrew Leigh

Indigenous Australians are now more likely to be in prison than African-Americans, according to new research by Labor parliamentarian and economist Andrew Leigh warning that Australia has entered “a second convict age”.

Leigh’s new working paper finds that in 2018, around 43,000 Australians were in prison, a rate of 221 for every 100,000 adults – which he says is a significant jump since incarceration rates began climbing in 1985.

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Massive pumice ‘raft’ spotted in the Pacific could help replenish Great Barrier Reef

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The 150 sq km field of floating rock was created by an underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga

A giant raft of pumice, which was spotted in the Pacific and is expected to make its way towards Australia, could help the recovery of the Great Barrier Reef from its bleaching episode by restocking millions of tiny marine organisms, including coral.

The pumice raft, which is about 150 sq km, was produced by an underwater volcano near Tonga. It was first reported by Australian couple Michael Hoult and Larissa Brill, who were sailing a catamaran to Fiji, on 16 August.

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G7: Scott Morrison to push for action against online terrorist content

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Australia’s PM flies into Biarritz, where he will have talks with world leaders – and a chat with Donald Trump

Scott Morrison will try to push countries further on taking action against terrorist and violent extremist material on social media during a series of meetings on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

Australia’s prime minister arrived in the French surfing town of Biarritz on Saturday night (early Sunday AEST) for the high-powered international forum.

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Troubled waters: Australia bets on Trump in Middle East deployment

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Analysts say sending a warship to patrol the Strait of Hormuz risks binding Australia to an incoherent and inflammatory US foreign policy

Australia’s announcement this week that it will join US-led freedom of navigation operations patrolling the Strait of Hormuz brings the number of American allies willing to contribute to America’s latest Middle East sortie to just three.

The increasing tensions in the narrow, but critical, strait are almost universally regarded as an avoidable, US-created crisis, the result of Washington tearing up the Iran nuclear deal.

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WA Labor conference: chaos after walkout during Welcome to Country

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WA Labor president apologises to Indigenous Australians for walkout by right faction union delegates

Western Australia’s Labor conference has turned chaotic after a large number of delegates walked out during a Welcome to the Country ceremony and tribute to the former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke.

It was reported a large portion of the crowd heckled Perth MP Patrick Gorman and the WA Labor president, Carolyn Smith, before storming out of the complex.

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Iran sanctions scandal: Australian company offloads $15m cargo it says it was duped into carrying

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Quantum Fertiliser, part of ASX-listed Incitec Pivot, says it is reviewing its operations to avoid a recurrence

The Australian multinational at the centre of an Iran sanctions scandal has offloaded a $15m shipment of Iranian cargo it says it was duped into taking, and is reviewing its operations to avoid a repeat.

A subsidiary of ASX-listed company Incitec Pivot took hold of a cargo shipment of fertiliser from Iran late last month, potentially risking a contravention of strict United States sanctions.

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Robodebt could target pensioners and ‘sensitive’ groups, leaked documents show

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Exclusive: Coalition needs to include over 65s and other disadvantaged welfare recipients to hit $600m budget plan

The Morrison government could target thousands of pensioners and other “sensitive” welfare recipients under a proposed expansion of the controversial robodebt scheme needed to achieve a promised $2.1bn in budget savings, according to confidential documents seen by Guardian Australia.

The documents, stamped “PROTECTED CABINET”, show the scheme would fall $600m short of its required budget savings unless it is expanded to hit “sensitive” groups originally quarantined from data matching.

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Security blunder as Queensland premier’s office publishes name of Asio agent

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Exclusive: accidental release of intelligence operative’s name in Annastacia Palaszczuk’s diaries blamed on ‘administrative error’

The Queensland premier’s office has mistakenly published the name of a secret intelligence operative in an extraordinary national security breach potentially punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The name of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio) agent was accidentally published during the routine public release of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s diaries, a practice designed to boost government transparency.

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Melbourne archbishop says George Pell innocent and questions if victim mistaken

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Peter Comensoli says he accepts victim was abused but wonders whether he was wrong in naming cardinal as abuser

Catholic archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli says he believes convicted paedophile Cardinal George Pell when he protests his innocence, and has speculated if the sole living victim got the name of his abuser wrong.

A day after Victoria’s court of appeal upheld Pell’s conviction for the rape of a 13-year-old choirboy and sexual assault of another at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996, Comensoli said while he respected the courts, he also believed his friend and would continue to visit him in prison.

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Montara oil spill: site’s new operator rejects suggestion it couldn’t afford second clean-up

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Jadestone CEO says it could cover the cost of cleaning up a major spill, even though company has never made a profit

The new operator of the site of Australia’s worst ever oil spill has dismissed concerns it might not have the financial capacity to clean up should disaster strike again.

Ten years ago on Wednesday an estimated 40 million litres of oil leaked from a faulty rig in the Montara field, in the Timor Sea, and for 10 weeks spread over tens of thousands of square kilometres of ocean.

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Vatican invokes Cardinal George Pell’s ‘right to appeal’ after child sexual abuse conviction upheld

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Former Vatican treasurer, and most senior Catholic cleric in the world to be convicted of child sexual assault, maintains innocence after losing appeal

The most senior Catholic cleric in the world to be convicted of child sexual abuse, Cardinal George Pell, has lost his appeal against his conviction, but maintains he is innocent.

In a brief statement issued after the decision the Vatican reiterated that Pell maintained his innocence, and that it was now “Pell’s right to appeal to the high court”.

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Big irrigators take 86% of water from Barwon-Darling, report finds

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Lower Darling pushed into drought three years early because of sheer volume of water extraction by just a few licence holders

A handful of big irrigators are responsible for 86% of water extracted from the Barwon-Darling river system, pushing the lower Darling into drought three years early, an expert report has found.

The NSW Natural Resources Commission released the report by the Australian Rivers Institute professor Fran Sheldon on Monday night, after it received criticism for the claim that extraction of water by cotton growers had pushed the river system into hydrological drought three years early.

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Cardinal George Pell loses appeal on child sexual assault conviction – live

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Appeal dismissed by a majority of two to one for the 78-year-old who will remain in prison until October 2022. He was sentenced in March for sexually assaulting two choirboys in 1996

By the way - this is a huge testament to the value of the jury system. I will have so much to say about that. There is NO strong evidence judges alone are less biased or more correct than a jury of 12. #Pell.

Interesting that Morrison said the decision to strip Pell of his honours is independent to the government. Back In February my colleague Paul Karp was told that if Pell lost the appeal the prime minister would write to the Council of the Order of Australia recommending it review and revoke the honour, a decision made on its recommendation by the governor general.

Related: PM to strip George Pell of Order of Australia honour if cardinal loses appeal

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