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.
Continue reading...Exclusive: public notice on proposal was placed in classifieds of paper in Queensland town of Emerald
A Clive Palmer-controlled company has applied for a mining lease and environmental authority to build a massive coalmine four times the size of Adani’s in the Queensland Galilee Basin.
The Galilee Coal project – formerly called China First – has not progressed since it gained federal environmental approval in late 2013.
Continue reading...ALP requests documents about Barr investigation into the Mueller report. Plus, new AFP commissioner faces Senate estimates, and media companies unite against secrecy laws. All the day’s events, live
Scott Morrison adds to the answer to Warren Snowdon’s question:
On 13 September of this year, I can confirm that the tender was awarded to Australian company Oricon an engineering company that, will lead the Kakadu road strategy and they’ll work in a consortium with PwC, and PwC Indigenous consulting, beginning the work immediately.
The roads of strategy will be developed in.conjunction with the tourism master plan, access to key sites and planned upgrades. I thought the member would be interested in that additional information.
The folders are stacked.
We are done as soon as Greg Hunt finishes this dixer.
Angeleanna Estorffe tells operator ‘I think he’s really hurt’ after her husband was shot by intruders
Harrowing audio has been released of Angeleanna Estorffe struggling to tell a 911 dispatcher her Australian husband was dying after being shot by intruders in their Texas family home.
Brenton Estorffe and his wife were asleep when the intruders broke a window at the rear of their home in Katy, near Houston, just after midnight on Wednesday.
Continue reading...United campaign by media companies highlights government moves to penalise whistleblowing and criminalise journalism
• Lenore Taylor: Concrete action rather than nice words are needed on press freedom
The front page of every newspaper in Australia was blacked out on Monday as part of a campaign against moves by successive federal governments to penalise whistleblowing and, in some cases, criminalise journalism.
The campaign, by the Australia’s Right to Know Coalition, follows raids on the ABC’s Sydney headquarters and the home of a News Corp journalist in June, the legality of which is being challenged in the high court.
Continue reading...Beijing should substantially reform its lending practices, Lowy Institute says
China has not engaged in deliberate “debt-trap diplomacy” in the Pacific, but the burgeoning scale of China’s lending, and institutional weakness within Pacific states, pose clear risks for small states being overwhelmed by debt, a new report argues.
And an infrastructure arms race between China and other countries with interests in the region – including Australia – might only exacerbate the problem.
Continue reading...PM to attend Joko Widodo’s inauguration and hold talks on FTA, which opposition leader says will be good for jobs
Scott Morrison’s whirlwind trip to Indonesia is a “good thing”, his political opponent says, as Labor embraces bipartisan support for Australia’s latest free trade agreement.
Morrison travelled to Indonesia for Joko Widodo’s second inauguration as president, with talks between the two leaders planned at the presidential palace.
Continue reading...Qantas plane lands after record New York-to-Sydney flight carrying 50 passengers and crew, plus a ‘comfortable’ 70 minutes of fuel
Qantas has completed a historic non-stop test flight from New York to Sydney, researching the potential impacts on pilots, crew and passengers of what would be the world’s longest commercial airplane journey.
Carrying 50 passengers and crew, QF7879 on a new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner touched down in Sydney on Sunday morning after a 16,200-kilometre (10,066-mile) journey lasting 19 hours and 16 minutes.
Continue reading...Lambie’s vote will decide the fate of the medical evacuation laws the previous parliament’s crossbench was instrumental in passing
She came in like a wrecking ball.
But Jacqui Lambie, the senator, has grown up.
Continue reading...After water restrictions and emergency infrastructure, the final drought strategy is sheer perseverance
People have started visiting the outback town of Pooncarie just to see a place that’s running dry.
Josh Sheard, the publican at the Pooncarie hotel, says the remote town in far south-west New South Wales needs the attention.
Continue reading...The blunt words of Sydney archbishop Glenn Davies come at a critical moment for Australian churches and demands for religious freedom
For a man renowned for his civility, the language was blunt. During his annual speech to the Anglican Church’s Sydney synod, Archbishop Glenn Davies told supporters of same-sex marriage to “please leave us”.
“My own view is that if people wish to change the doctrine of our church, they should start a new church or join a church more aligned to their views,” he said. “But do not ruin the Anglican Church by abandoning the plain teaching of scripture.”
Continue reading...Maythem Radhi accused of being part of syndicate that charged 421 mostly Iraqi and Afghan refugees for place aboard Indonesian boat
An Iraqi man has been charged in Australia with people-trafficking in connection with the drowning deaths of more than 350 asylum seekers in the 2001 SIEV X tragedy.
Maythem Radhi, 43, was arrested at Brisbane airport late Friday after being extradited from New Zealand and has been charged with “organising groups of non-citizens into Australia”, police say.
Continue reading...Melbourne synod’s vote comes days after Sydney archbishop said Anglicans who back same-sex marriage should leave church
Melbourne’s Anglican church has formally voted to record its “sorrow” over a regional Victorian diocese’s decision to bless same-sex marriages.
The nod of approval given by the Wangaratta diocese in August has angered the Melbourne church’s governing body.
Continue reading...The public recoils, although sheep and cows are killed in identical fashion. But the racing industry has a serious case to answer too
The biggest trucks at any horse sale belong to the meat dealers. At the end of the day, once those awarded a second chance have been led away, the dealers open the remaining pens and run their unlucky purchases through the saleyard to the loading ramp.
Young, well-fed, well-muscled horses – such as thoroughbreds or standardbreds that have recently left the racing industries – are sent to export abattoirs in Peterborough, South Australia, or the Meramist abattoir in Caboolture, Queensland. The latter is currently being investigated for animal cruelty offences after footage aired on the ABC’s 7.30 program showed horses being shocked with electric prods, hit and kicked before slaughter.
Continue reading...The NSW coroner hears that Aboriginal prisoner Eric Whittaker was unconscious and would not have been able to move
The NSW coroner has heard it was “horrific” that Aboriginal man Eric Whittaker, who died in hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage in prison custody, had been shackled to the bed in the last days of his life despite being unconscious and unresponsive.
An emergency medicine researcher from the University of New South Wales, Anna Holdgate, went on to tell the court “we would only use restraint as a last resort” and “for the briefest time possible”.
Continue reading...In Question Time, the prime minister says opposition are addicted to panic and crisis. All the day’s events, live
This is not a sight you will see too often – a LNP senator sitting with the crossbench, against the government.
Susan McDonald chaired the committee that recommended the additional maintenance requirements be removed from charity flight operators – which is what Rex Patrick is calling for.
And from this, I think you can infer from this answer on the voice to parliament, Ken Wyatt has set out that the government will be pushing to legislate, before heading to the referendum
Patricia Karvelas: You do know you’ll break a lot of hearts by not putting the voice to the people?
We also have to be pragmatic and that’s a reality.
Some people have told me it will break their hearts. We have to think about whether we want to be recognised in the Constitution.
Recognition was in section 127 in the Constitution but in the sense of not allowing us to be counted. 127 was struck out.
The 1967 referendum created a number of myths around what it really meant to people. The reality was, was the striking out of that and then the amendment, the 51-26.
I’m going to wait to see what comes out.
I’ve been meeting with people and there is a degree of willingness to have recognition. I think that once we work through whatever the voice is, and that may give us another option.
Continue reading...NunaX car of Dutch team catches fire 250km before finish of 3,000km Darwin to Adelaide race
The leading car in the World Solar Challenge has caught fire and withdrawn from the race a little more than 250km from the Adelaide finish.
The NunaX car of Dutch team Vattenfall caught fire just before Mambray Creek on Thursday.
Continue reading...Extreme rightwing groups in Australia will remain an ‘enduring threat’, according to annual report from Australia’s spy agency
The threat from extreme rightwing terrorism in Australia has increased in recent years and will remain an “enduring threat”, according to Australia’s spy agency.
The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation issued the warning in its latest annual report, adding that “extreme rightwing groups in Australia are more cohesive and organised than they have been in previous years”.
Continue reading...Paul 'Jock' Palfreeman, who served 11 years in prison for fatally stabbing a Bulgarian student, has been released from immigration detention in the capital, Sofia, nearly a month after being granted parole. Speaking to journalists as he left the detention centre, Palfreeman voiced a desire to stay in Bulgaria if possible. 'Many people probably think, that I have had protection from Australia for the last 12 years, but the truth is, that the people who have helped me were Bulgarians and I trust them'
Continue reading...Three-quarters of MPs want the caps, with 23% saying misrepresentation by media their greatest dislike
Three-quarters of federal parliamentarians want caps placed on both donations and election spending to help restore Australians’ trust in the democratic process.
On Wednesday, Democracy2025 will release the results of a survey of 98 out of 226 politicians in the last term of parliament, which shows while most politicians are satisfied with Australian democracy (61%) compared with the public at large (41%), they are still concerned about lack of trust and a growing disconnect with the public.
Continue reading...