Sydney and other airports have experienced delays caused by problems with the electronic smart-gate passport processing
A nationwide security outage believed to be linked to Australian Border Force terminals is causing delays at airports across Australia.
The outage caused delays of between 15 and 30 minutes at airports including Sydney and Brisbane on Monday morning.
Continue reading...The cost of keeping China out of the region is too great, we must build forces that could counter its operations instead
Let’s be honest: Australians have never had much time for our South Pacific neighbours.
The island nations that lie to our north and north-east, stretching from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to Vanuatu, Fiji and beyond, may be close to us geographically, but we have not found them especially interesting, important or profitable.
Continue reading...One-year-old Josiah Ntiamoah died after being hit by a car at the front of a Green Valley home
A one-year-old boy who died after he was struck by a car in a driveway in Sydney’s west is believed to be the son of Olympic athlete Isaac Ntiamoah.
The toddler was hit by the car at the front of a Green Valley home about 3pm on Friday, New South Wales police said in a statement. His mother took him to Liverpool hospital but he died a short time later.
Continue reading...Ambitious export plan could generate billions and make Australia the centre of low-cost energy in a future zero-carbon world
The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep in the Northern Territory, is not the most obvious place to build and transmit Singapore’s future electricity supply. Though few in the southern states are yet to take notice, a group of Australian developers are betting that will change.
If they are right, it could have far-reaching consequences for Australia’s energy industry and what the country sells to the world.
Continue reading...For a special membership fee, developers will have access to Liberal National party events such as cocktail receptions
The Queensland Liberal National party will offer property developers free cocktails and other perks as part of a paid “diamond membership” package, following the state’s ban on them making political donations.
At its annual convention, which is being held across three days this weekend, the party said it would institute the new membership scheme, which allows developers and others to pay a $990 special membership fee.
Continue reading...Steven John McGillivray pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and inappropriately accessing woman’s details
A former Victorian police officer has avoided jail after repeatedly misusing the force’s database to look up a woman’s details and then turning up at her house.
Steven John McGillivray, 50, was convicted in Melbourne magistrates court on Friday after pleading guilty to misconduct in public office and inappropriately accessing the woman’s details four times between 2014 and 2017.
Continue reading...The outage could also have significant impact on welfare recipients, who use MyGov to contact Centrelink
As thousands of Australians try to submit their tax returns, the main online portal for federal government services has gone down.
In an outage that will also affect thousands of welfare recipients across the country, the MyGov site appeared to be unavailable on Friday morning, returning an error.
Continue reading...‘We all hit the roof,’ passenger says after plane forced to land in Honolulu
Dozens of people on an Air Canada flight to Australia have been injured after the plane encountered unexpected turbulence, forcing it to land in Hawaii.
The flight from Vancouver to Sydney encountered “unforecasted and sudden turbulence” about two hours past Hawaii and diverted to Honolulu, according to an Air Canada spokeswoman, Angela Mah.
Continue reading...Labor says deputy premier John Barilaro’s plan is outrageous while the Greens label it ‘criminal’
New South Wales Labor has demanded Gladys Berejiklian rule out Liberal party support for a Nationals bill that would open up the Murray Valley national park to logging.
The premier refused to comment on Thursday after the deputy premier, John Barilaro, vowed to de-gazette the park in the state’s Riverina region or reduce its size.
Continue reading...Crowds of tourists are scaling the world heritage-listed site against the wishes of the traditional owners
Tourists are travelling to Uluru to climb the rock, against the wishes of the traditional owners, to get in before the practice is banned in October.
Parks Australia said there were “certainly visitors travelling with the intention of climbing Uluru before the climb closure comes into effect”.
Continue reading...Kickstart the domestic market so Asian countries rejecting Australian waste is no longer a problem, industry suggests
Australia could quickly solve the problem of Indonesia and other countries rejecting its waste if governments invested in recycling manufacturing as promised and required the use of recycled material in public projects, industry and environmental groups say.
Jakarta announced on Tuesday it would return 210 tonnes of Australian household rubbish – the latest demonstration of opposition in south-east Asia to receiving exported waste. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have each turned back shipments and warned they would not become dumping grounds for developed countries after China banned imports of foreign plastic rubbish.
Continue reading...Australian prime minister Scott Morrison speaks about the debate around freedom of religion at the opening of the national conference of the evangelical Hillsong church. 'It’s not the laws that makes freedom of religion work, it’s the culture that accepts it,' he tells a crowd of 21,000 people. 'I speak about my faith ... because I want everyone in this place to feel comfortable talking about their faith in this country. It’s not a political agenda, it’s who we are.' Morrison says while freedom of belief in Australia is fundamental, Christians need to prioritise love over judgments. He used the example of persecuted Christians in Soviet Russia: 'You didn’t hear the stories that they were complaining about their rights. They were out there for God ... This country needs more love, less judgment'
Continue reading...Australian student who was detained by the regime breaks his silence
Alek Sigley, the Australian student who was detained by North Korea for a little over a week before being released, has rejected the regime’s accusation that he was a spy.
Sigley, 29, returned to social media late on Wednesday, where he released a brief statement after assuring everyone he was well, mentally and physically.
Continue reading...Drug educator Paul Dillon says it’s ‘ludicrous’ to think pill testing will stop drug deaths, but Australia does need to try something
One in 20 year 10 students have tried ecstasy, an Australian drug educator has told an inquest into NSW music festival deaths.
“It just baffles me,” Paul Dillon said in Sydney on Tuesday. “Certainly amongst young people, MDMA is the drug of the moment.”
Continue reading...Crystal-lee Wightley dies at her family’s home three days after getting sick
A Melbourne family say they are heartbroken after a 13-year-old girl died from the flu late last week, as the national death toll nears 300.
Crystal-lee Wightley had the flu for three days before she died at her family’s home.
Continue reading...Brumby 610 aircraft left William Creek airport and crashed on approach to Leigh Creek airport, police say
A pilot and his passenger from Queensland have been killed in a light plane crash in northern South Australia.
Police have confirmed stud farmer Peter Gesler, 59, and his 48-year-old female passenger died after the plane crashed in scrubland near a small airport just before 6.30pm on Saturday.
Continue reading...Progressive politics must find ways to build areas of consensus while keeping an eye on hip pocket issues
Bob Hawke, a political superstar, was a social democrat. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an up-and-coming star today, is a democratic socialist. While the vernacular has changed, the focus remains on the “social” part of the equation rather than the “democratic” one. The social bias draws support and condemnation in equal measure.
Yet perhaps the left misses a trick when it allows the democratic aspect to be downplayed. Almost all in the broader left accept that you can’t implement a social program if you can’t build a democratic mandate for it.
Continue reading...Pyongyang’s news agency said Alek Sigley had spread propaganda against the regime
North Korea has said an Australian student who it detained for a week had spread anti-Pyongyang propaganda and engaged in spying by providing photos and other materials to news outlets with critical views about the country.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said on Saturday that North Korea had deported Alek Sigley on Thursday after he pleaded for forgiveness for his activities, which the agency said infringed on the country’s sovereignty.
Continue reading...Judgement follows failure to transfer seriously ill refugee under medevac laws
A federal court judge has excoriated the Australian government, accusing it of putting its relationship with Nauru ahead of complying with court orders and federal law.
The judgement by Justice Debra Mortimer was published on Friday, after the government failed to comply with a 14 June order to transfer a refugee with “serious medical and psychiatric issues” to Australia under the medevac laws.
Continue reading...Backdown comes after university intervened to have its governing body sign off on Ramsay Centre degree despite it never being considered by its academic senate
The peak union for university academics and staff has been forced to drop legal action against the University of Wollongong over its approval of the controversial Ramsay Centre-funded western civilisation course.
The National Tertiary Education Union announced on Friday that it had withdrawn its action in the New South Wales supreme court over what it had described as the “unlawful” approval of the degree by the university late last year.
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