Category Archives: Australia news

Police officers abused Afghan women in Sydney traffic stop, watchdog finds

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Video footage shows 24-year-old woman and her stepmother being pulled over and belittled by two officers

Two New South Wales police officers have been found to have engaged in serious misconduct after they racially abused and belittled two Afghan women at a traffic stop in western Sydney.

On Thursday the Law Enforcement and Conduct Commission released a series of investigations into police conduct in the state, including video footage of a 24-year-old woman and her stepmother being pulled over by police in April.

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Hang-glider killed and another critical after crash near Byron Bay

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Passenger – reported to be Irish tourist, 26 – winched off cliff at Lennox Head by helicopter

One man is dead and another, believed to be an Irish tourist, is in a critical condition after a hang-gliding accident on the New South Wales north coast.

Emergency services were called to the Pat Morton lookout at Lennox Head near Byron Bay about midday on Wednesday after reports of a crash.

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Beautiful one day, pitiful the next: is ‘philausophy’ a new low for Australian tourism ads?

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As the concept of philausophy is unleashed on an unsuspecting world, please share your views on the good, the bad and the frankly odd campaigns in Australian tourism history

The word “philausophy” did not exist until Wednesday and, depending on its reception, may not exist for much longer.

The latest international campaign from Tourism Australia has landed, with its awkward, crow-barred pun already dividing audiences in the same way that it inelegantly divides the word “philosophy” itself.

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Hundreds of koalas feared burned alive in out-of-control bushfire near Port Macquarie

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Blaze around Lake Innes and Lake Cathie in northern NSW has destroyed more than 2,000 hectares and spread smoke haze to Sydney

Hundreds of koalas are feared to have died in an out-of-control bushfire in northern New South Wales which has raged unchecked for days in the heartland of their prime habitat.

The blaze, reportedly caused by a lightning strike near Port Macquarie, has burned more than 2,000 hectares, including an important koala breeding ground.

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Anthony Albanese can’t afford to lie low – and he faces a gruelling uphill journey | Katharine Murphy

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The Labor leader wants blue-collar workers to know he knows they exist, isn’t ashamed of them and has them front of mind

Anthony Albanese would be better off if he could wave a cheery goodbye and retreat from the political fray until budget time next year, re-emerging after Labor as a collective has finished absorbing the May election loss, written all the books and all the blogs and the think pieces, completed the close inspection of the navel, and worked out where it wants to reposition itself.

But Albanese doesn’t have that luxury.

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Ancestral home of modern humans is in Botswana, study finds

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Other scientists raise questions about results, which were based on DNA samples

Scientists claim to have traced the ancestral home region of all living humans to a vast wetland that sprawled over much of modern day Botswana and served as an oasis in an otherwise parched expanse of Africa.

The swathe of land south of the Zambezi River became a thriving home to Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago, the researchers suggest, and sustained an isolated, founder population of modern humans for at least 70,000 years.

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Single mother’s $50,000 welfare debt wiped as tribunal rules Centrelink wrong

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Woman challenges agency after being accused of falsely claiming a single parenting payment while in a relationship

Centrelink was wrong to issue a single mother and alleged domestic violence victim with a $50,000 welfare debt, a tribunal has ruled.

The woman, whose identity was not published, has been locked in a one-year battle with the agency after she was accused of falsely claiming the single parenting payment while in a relationship over a five-year period.

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Sparks fly after roadworks leave power pole in middle of Newcastle street

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Ausgrid hits out at council for widening Foundry Street and moving the kerb during the electricity distributor’s live work ban

Newcastle residents have been left confused after a series of events led to a power pole seemingly installed in the middle of a road.

Photos of the baffling pole – which sits in the middle of Foundry Street in Wickham – were shared widely on social media, as the City of Newcastle and electricity distributor Ausgrid traded blame for who was responsible.

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New dawn for Uluru as climb closure ends decades of disrespect

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It was an eerily quiet morning at the Anangu sacred site after the hubbub of the past several months

As the sun rose over Uluru this morning, on the first day since Anangu closed the climb, traditional owner Sammy Wilson said the rock would finally have a “well-earned rest”.

Small groups of people were walking quietly around the base, in and out of the spinifex. Police and park rangers stationed in the climb carpark said it was an eerily quiet morning after the hubbub of the past several months.

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‘Respect is given’: Australia closes climb on sacred Uluru

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Indigenous Australians watch tourists make last climbs after years of asking for closure

Australian Indigenous traditional owners have watched tourists climb over their sacred rock Uluru for the final time after years of pleading for people to respect their culture and only walk around the base.

At 4pm on Friday, Parks Australia closed the climb permanently, 34 years after the government officially returned the site to its traditional Anangu owners.

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Australia denies Cameroonian journalist visa for press freedom conference

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Authorities believed Mimi Mefo, an award-winning journalist who works for Deutsche Welle in Berlin, might try to stay

A Berlin-based journalist who was due to speak at a press freedom conference in Brisbane has said she was denied a visa by the Australian government because they believed she might try to stay.

Mimi Mefo, an award-winning Cameroonian journalist who currently works for Deutsche Welle, was scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the Integrity 20 conference on Friday.

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Joe Hockey offered to assist in Barr inquiry without official request – politics live

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There is a transcript of his conversation with US attorney, but officials say they do not intend to share it with estimates. All the day’s events, live

Mark Butler to Angus Taylor:

“I refer to the minister’s previous answer – where did the minister get the forged document?”

I absolutely reject the premise of the question and the bizarre assertions being peddled by those opposite.

Mark Butler to Angus Taylor:

My question is to the minister of emissions reduction. Section 253 of the New South Wales crimes act creates a serious offence for making a false document to influence the exercise of a public duty. I refer to his provision of a forged City of Sydney document in the Daily Telegraph in an attempt to influence the Lord Mayor of Sydney in exercise of her public duty. Will he administer to this house that this forgery was not made by him or his office?

Yes.

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Snorkelling grandmothers uncover large population of venomous sea snakes in Noumea

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Women’s photography of greater sea snake, once believed to be an anomaly in the Baie des Citrons, help scientists understand the ecosystem

A group of snorkelling grandmothers who swim up to 3km five days a week have uncovered a large population of venomous sea snakes in a bay in Noumea where scientists once believed they were rare.

Claire Goiran from the University of New Caledonia and Professor Rick Shine from Australia’s Macquarie University were studying a small harmless species known as the turtle‐headed sea snake located in the Baie des Citrons, but would occasionally encounter the 1.5 metre-long venomous greater sea snake, also known as the olive-headed sea snake.

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Mystery of the doctored documents: Angus Taylor and the climate attack on Sydney’s lord mayor

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Exclusive: story published in Daily Telegraph was based on false figures for travel expenditure purporting to be from council’s annual report

Angus Taylor baselessly accused Sydney’s lord mayor of driving up carbon emissions by spending $15m on travel, a claim that was later backed up with a doctored council document provided to the Daily Telegraph, which reported the figure.

On 30 September, the Telegraph reported on page three that the “City of Sydney Council’s outlay on flights outstrips that of Australia’s foreign ministers”.

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Former Tuvalu PM says he was ‘stunned’ by Scott Morrison’s behaviour at Pacific Islands Forum

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Enele Sopoaga says he was also ‘insulted and deeply angry’ at comments made by Australian deputy prime minister Michael McCormack

The former prime minister of Tuvalu has said he was “stunned” by Scott Morrison’s behaviour at the recent Pacific Islands Forum, which he though communicated the view that Pacific leaders should “take the money … then shut up about climate change”.

Enele Sopoaga, speaking at the national conference of the Australian Council for International Development (Acfid) in Sydney on Wednesday, said Morrison’s behaviour at the forum, which Tuvalu hosted in August, was “dismissive” of the concerns of the Pacific regarding the climate crisis.

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‘Dark day for human rights’: Subianto named as Indonesia’s defence minister

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General who has been accused of abuses is named in cabinet of Joko Widodo, against whom he ran for president

The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, has appointed as his defence minister his former bitter election rival Prabowo Subianto – an ex-army general accused of human rights abuses.

Widodo announced his cabinet line-up on Wednesday having beaten Subianto in April’s general election. At least nine people died and more than 200 were injured due to riots in Jakarta following the fraught campaign, during which Subianto accused Widodo’s government of hosting a “massive, systematic and fraudulent” election.

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Man dies after falling 10 metres from zipline in far north Queensland

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A woman was also injured when the pair fell from the flying fox at Cape Tribulation

A South Australian man has died and a woman is in hospital after they fell about 10 metres from a zipline in Queensland’s far north.

The pair were believed to have been harnessed together when they fell from the flying fox run by Jungle Surfing Canopy Tours at Cape Tribulation about 2pm on Tuesday.

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British bishop rebukes Sydney Anglican leader’s call for gay marriage supporters to leave church

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Bishop of Liverpool says he regrets that Archbishop Glenn Davies ‘seems to want to exclude people rather than to engage with them’

A senior Church of England bishop has expressed regret at comments by the Archbishop of Sydney that supporters of marriage equality should leave the Anglican church.

Reflecting sharp divisions within the global Anglican communion over LGBT+ issues, the Bishop of Liverpool, Paul Bayes, said: “I regret that the archbishop [of Sydney] seems to want to exclude people rather than to engage with them within the wider Anglican family.”

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Victorian government owed up to $700m after fine system failures

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Merging of Victoria’s court fines system with the centralised fines system has led to a delay in payments

Issues merging Victoria’s court fines system with the centralised fines system has led to a delay in payments for more than 100,000 fines, adding up to hundreds of millions of dollars waiting to be paid to the Victorian government.

Reports estimate the amount of outstanding fines sits as high as $700m, with 120,000 fines going unpaid.

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