Category Archives: Australia news

Stuart Robert on robodebt: ‘This government does not apologise’ – politics live

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Aged-care package ‘falls well short’ of what is required, Labor says; Morrison responds to Chinese spy plot allegations; and Jacqui Lambie ‘not supporting a repeal’ of medevac, Rex Patrick says. All the day’s events, live

And on that note, we are going to ground this plane - but we will be back tomorrow morning for more fun and games.

There are officially seven sitting days left. Medevac and ensuring integrity are still high on the government’s wish list, but, as always the crossbench is the key. It looks like the government has agreed to Pauline Hanson’s amendments for the union bill, but she is still holding out. Jacqui Lambie has a diary full of meetings when it comes to medevac. Keep a close eye on that one.

Something to watch out for, tomorrow

Our 2019 Mapping #SocialCohesionReport launches tomorrow, 26 November. The report produced in partnership with @MonashUni researchers uses a comprehensive survey to gauge a nuanced understanding of shifts in public opinion on social cohesion and population issues.

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Claim of Chinese spy plot in Australia ‘deeply disturbing’, Scott Morrison says

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‘Australia is not naive’ to threats of foreign interference, PM says, but cautions against ‘leaping to conclusions’

Prime minister Scott Morrison says Australia is “not naive” to the threat of foreign interference amid explosive claims that the Chinese communist party wanted to infiltrate Australia’s parliament.

Describing the alleged plot as “deeply disturbing and troubling”, Morrison said the government was determined to protect Australians from foreign interference and had bolstered laws to strengthen the powers of intelligence agencies.

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More than 60 fires burn across New South Wales as $48m relief package announced

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The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and the federal emergency management minister, David Littleproud, join forces to help fire victims

Weather has hampered firefighting efforts as the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced $48m has been set aside for bushfire recovery, after blazes devastated some communities.

The community recovery package – a joint federal and state government initiative – was announced on Sunday morning and includes grants of up to $15,000 to help small businesses and farmers.

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Scott Morrison can’t attack Australia’s political circus and pretend he isn’t its ringmaster | Katharine Murphy

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The prime minister is relentlessly pursuing the politics of panic, but validating voter anxiety can only go so far

It’s possible I have Harold Bloom lodged in my head lately because he loomed large in my youth, and he died recently, but when I listen to Scott Morrison, increasingly I think of Bloom, and The Anxiety of Influence.

If you are too young or productively educated to have encountered Bloom, he is the literary critic who held that all writers have to confront the writers who came before them, in the process creating imaginative space for themselves. Bloom’s theory is more complex than my simple rendering, but that’s the primary idea.

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A 12-year-old girl, online sexual exploitation and lax financial rules

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The Westpac scandal has brought the role of financial institutions in enabling child sexual abuse into sharp relief

On 25 October plainclothes police barged through the red door of a family home in a dense neighbourhood in Rizal, a province two hours away from Manila.

There they arrested a mother who was allegedly sexually exploiting her own 12-year-old daughter. The 45-year-old woman was clutching her phone. Police took it and then handcuffed her.

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Eddie Obeid to be released from prison on parole after three years in jail

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Former Labor NSW MP and powerbroker will have served three years of his five-year sentence for misconduct in public office

The disgraced former New South Wales Labor MP Eddie Obeid has been granted parole after serving three years in prison for his conviction over misconduct in public office.

Obeid was convicted and sentenced in December 2016 to five years in prison with a non-parole period of three years.

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Australian women win landmark vaginal mesh class action against Johnson & Johnson

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The case was launched on behalf of 700 women who had pelvic mesh and tape products implanted to treat common complications of childbirth

Hundreds of women left in debilitating pain by faulty transvaginal mesh devices have won a landmark case against multinational giant Johnson & Johnson.

The Australian class action against companies owned by Johnson & Johnson – watched closely across the world – was won on behalf of 1,350 women who had mesh and tape products implanted to treat pelvic prolapse or stress urinary incontinence, both common complications of childbirth.

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Rupert Murdoch says ‘there are no climate change deniers around’ News Corp

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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.

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Australia fires: record-breaking temperatures fuel bushfires across the country

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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.

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Australia fires: All mainland states top 40C as bushfire code red issued in Victoria

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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.

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Two Australian universities sever ties with Prince Andrew charity after Epstein interview

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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.

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Food delivery bike couriers in Australia being underpaid by up to $322 a week

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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.

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Global heating supercharging Indian Ocean climate system

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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.

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Sydney smoke: city covered in thick haze as more than 50 bushfires burn across NSW

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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.

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Paul Keating’s speech on Australia’s China policy – full text | Paul Keating

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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.

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‘Plain cruel’: Vanuatu stops newspaper chief boarding plane home after China stories

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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.

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Scott Morrison condemns Israel Folau for linking bushfires to same-sex marriage and abortion

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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.

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Greens MP Adam Bandt defends senator who called major party politicians ‘arsonists’

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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.

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Australia braces for electric scooter boom as confusion reigns over state laws

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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.

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