World Heritage centre says proposal would result in inundation of large part of world heritage-listed Blue Mountains wilderness area
Advisers to the United Nations have expressed concerns about a plan to raise the Warragamba Dam wall because of its likely impact on the Blue Mountains.
The World Heritage Centre, which advises the UN committee in charge of world heritage properties, published its position on the project on Friday.
Continue reading...Partner assisting with inquiries as cold case disappearance of Priscilla Brooten becomes a homicide investigation
Queensland police are excavating the front yard of a home in Brisbane’s north where a missing American woman lived with her partner.
Priscilla Brooten was formally reported missing in December last year but the 46-year-old was last seen in July, in Bracken Ridge.
Continue reading...Divers found two-year-old’s body after searching a large dam near his family’s Cape York home
The body of a toddler missing for days on a remote cattle station on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula has been found near his home.
Ruben Scott was found by divers searching a large dam near the homestead on Koolatah Station on Friday afternoon, police said.
Continue reading...Four men died and a woman was injured in this week’s shooting rampage in Darwin
Northern Territory police have charged the man suspected of a shooting rampage in Darwin with four counts of murder.
Four men died and a woman was injured after being shot in the leg on Tuesday night.
Continue reading...Acting AFP commissioner denies the government directed the investigations, which have led to raids on the ABC and News Corp this week
The Australian federal police have all but confirmed that ABC and News Corp journalists could be charged for publishing protected information after two dramatic days of raids which prompted outrage and drew international attention to Australia’s draconian secrecy laws.
The acting AFP commissioner, Neil Gaughan, held a press conference on Thursday to contain political fallout, denying suggestions the police had waited until after the federal election to execute warrants and claiming no contact had been made with the executive since they informed home affairs minister Peter Dutton’s office when the investigations started.
Continue reading...Christopher Boyce accidentally says victim’s name, which is suppressed, during Thursday’s hearing
Prosecutor Christopher Boyce struggled through questions from three judges presiding over the appeal of Cardinal George Pell, finding it difficult to answer their inquiries about the victim’s evidence and the case.
Pell, 77, is appealing his conviction on four charges of an indecent act on a child under the age of 16, and one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16. On Wednesday his legal team, led by Bret Walker SC, argued it was improbable that Pell assaulted two 13-year-old boys after presiding as archbishop of Sunday solemn mass at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996, and then a few weeks later assaulted one of the boys again.
Continue reading...The appeal court judges listened intently as Bret Walker SC ransacked the English language to try to prove his point
Rule number two on these occasions is not to trust the look in their eyes. Judges are masters of disguise. Baleful can be applause. Smiles can be the kiss of death.
But the verdict at the end of the first day of George Pell’s appeal has to be that the bench is listening to the case being argued on his behalf by Bret Walker SC with a little more than respect.
Continue reading...PhD student and taxi driver Hassan Baydoun was shot while taking a meal break in apparently random attack
Details of the victims of a mass shooting in Darwin have been revealed as Northern Territory police say they expect to soon lay charges against the alleged gunman.
One of the victims, a PhD student and taxi driver Hassan Baydoun, had never met the accused gunman, his cousin says.
Continue reading...Police say alleged gunman, who was on parole and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, may have been looking for someone
The Northern Territory chief minister has announced a review of every person currently subject to electronic monitoring after a man wearing one of the bracelets allegedly killed four people in an hour-long rampage through Darwin on Tuesday.
The NT police chief, Reece Kershaw, said on Wednesday police believed the alleged gunman, a 45-year-old, was searching for someone who was interstate. Police said at least some of the victims may not have known the gunman.
Continue reading...Cardinal George Pell has appeared in a Melbourne court to appeal his conviction on charges related to child sexual abuse
Cardinal George Pell’s lawyer Bret Walker SC has told three judges presiding over his client’s appeal that the timing of Pell’s offending was a “critical matter” in deciding whether his conviction should be overturned.
Walker is appealing Pell’s conviction on three grounds, the key one being that the jury came to an unreasonable verdict based on the evidence before them during the trial.
Continue reading...First reports of a man firing shots came at motel just outside the city centre about 5.50pm
Witnesses of a shooting in Darwin that left four people dead and a woman injured have described scenes of panic after the gunman went on an hour-long rampage.
Northern Territory police arrested the suspected shooter, described as a Caucasian man aged 45, wearing high-vis workwear, on Tuesday night. He remained in hospital under police guard on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Northern Territory police say a 45-year-old suspect is in custody as witnesses report seeing gunman with a pump action shotgun open fire at motel
At least four people are dead and two injured in a mass shooting in Darwin’s city centre.
NT police have arrested the suspected shooter, described as a caucasian man about 45-years-old, wearing high-vis workwear.
Continue reading...Home affairs minister to hold high-level meetings and says Australia will help country rebuild after Easter terrorist attacks
The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, will hold high-level meetings in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, with people smuggling at the top of the agenda.
Dutton is due to meet Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena, prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his ministerial counterpart in Colombo on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Legal settlement reached after Acciona alleged it was misled over the complexity of the project and demanded $1.1bn
The consortium building Sydney’s eastern suburbs light rail project will receive up to $576m extra from the New South Wales government under a settlement deal which takes the total cost to $2.7bn.
The light rail linking the CBD to Randwick and Kingsford was originally meant to cost taxpayers $1.6bn.
Continue reading...Keith Pitt and James McGrath behind move, saying ‘we have to be able to investigate all options’
A group of Queensland Liberal National party MPs reportedly want parliament to consider the feasibility of nuclear power in Australia.
The energy source is banned as a source of power but several Coalition MPs will put forward a motion in the Senate to create a committee to investigate using nuclear power in the energy mix.
Continue reading...Kristina Keneally will become the shadow home affairs minister and Jim Chalmers will be shadow treasurer
Anthony Albanese has unveiled Labor’s new shadow ministry, saying the “outstanding new team” will hold the government to account and develop a fresh policy agenda to take to the next election.
The former New South Wales premier Kristina Keneally is the big winner from the opposition leader’s cabinet shake-up, taking the position of shadow home affairs minister after she secured a spot on Albanese’s leadership team as deputy Senate leader.
Continue reading...Rwandan community doesn’t want genocide victims’ families living in Australia to experience additional trauma
Celestin Ngoga knows what happens when Rwanda’s traumatic history comes hurtling into the present.
He’s been on European streets with genocide survivors when they encountered their attackers by chance. It can happen in English classes, he says, or on the train, or in shopping centres.
Continue reading...Police investigating whether deaths of mother and four children in Monday’s crash were part of a murder-suicide
Thirteen people have lost their lives in crashes on Queensland’s roads this week.
The death of a 20-year-old woman in a crash on the New England Highway near Crows Nest on Friday comes at the end of a dreadful week for the state.
Continue reading...Former prosecutor says US was confident when charges were brought that the two men were part of a Hutu rebel group
The attorney who brought charges against two Rwandan men recently resettled in Australia says the United States was “certain” they were members of a Hutu rebel group that was later designated a terror group by the US government.
The comments again raise questions about how the pair managed to pass Australia’s tough and vigorously applied character and security checks, under which others have been deported for minor offences or historical associations with criminal groups.
Continue reading...Everything pointed to a Labor win in the 2019 election. But it is only a pretence that we are in the certainty business
The federal election wash-up is a quaint sort of ritual. There are, inevitably, explosions of feelpinion about why one side won and the other side lost. The victors rush to write the first draft of history, and on the losing side there is a frenzy of backside covering and jostling for future advancement, masquerading as deep insights about who failed to do what and when.
All of it, the initial download – masters of the universe versus the vanquished – is inherently unreliable because the protagonists are unreliable. They are still processing what has happened and they are positioning for the next thing, because that’s how the psychology of politics works. Everything is refracted through post-campaign decompression and self-interest.
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