Category Archives: Australia news

Reserve Bank warns climate change posing increasing risk to financial stability

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RBA says it is becoming increasingly important for investors and institutions to actively manage carbon risk

Australia’s central bank has delivered a clear warning that climate change is exposing financial institutions and the financial system more broadly to risks that will rise over time if action isn’t taken.

The RBA’s financial stability review, released Friday, concluded that while climate change is not yet a significant threat to financial stability in Australia, it is becoming increasingly important for investors and institutions to actively manage carbon risk.

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Fossilised partial skeleton of new winged dinosaur found in Queensland

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The pterosaur, which had a four-metre wingspan, lived about 90 million years ago and was capable of crossing continents

In the heart of Queensland, palaeontologists have found the fossilised partial skeleton of a new winged dinosaur species capable of crossing continents.

The pterosaur, with a four-metre wingspan, may have lived about 90 million years ago.

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Captain Cook’s legacy is complex, but whether white Australia likes it or not he is emblematic of violence and oppression | Paul Daley

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British and Australian regret over Cook’s treatment of Indigenous people would go a long way to enhancing understanding of the continent’s shared history

The British government has issued an oh-so-carefully worded expression of “regret” for the killing of Māori in Aotearoa, today’s New Zealand, at the point of first contact during Lieutenant James Cook’s “voyage of discovery” 250 years ago.

Regrets! The old empire certainly has had cause for a few when it comes to the violence it has meted out to the indigenes of the places it took during Britain’s colonial expansion.

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Calls to cut pre-poll voting amid claims it is eroding ‘integrity’ of elections

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NSW Nationals, Coalition MP Paul Fletcher, LNP MP Julian Simmonds and independent MP Bob Katter urge cut to number of pre-poll voting weeks

The New South Wales Nationals and the communications minister, Paul Fletcher, have joined growing calls for the length of pre-poll voting before federal elections to be shortened.

In a submission to the inquiry examining the 2019 election, Fletcher warned the record number of Australians voting in pre-poll was eroding the “integrity and quality” of the electoral process.

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Helena Broadbent on triple zero call before being flung from ute, court told

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Pregnant Melbourne woman told emergency services her partner, William Wilson, had a hammer, police say

A triple zero operator heard an argument, screaming and then silence during a call from a pregnant woman killed when flung from a ute allegedly driven by her partner, according to police.

Helena Broadbent, 32, suffered a “catastrophic brain injury” when she fell backwards out of the Mitsubishi Triton in suburban Melbourne on Saturday and died in hospital after delivering a baby girl by caesarean.

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Jock Palfreeman to learn fate on Monday as parole sparks protests in Bulgaria

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Judges ‘vilified’ as release of Australian found guilty of murder divides legal system

Jock Palfreeman is likely to learn on Monday whether he will be free to leave Bulgaria after serving almost 11 years in prison for murder, a crime the Australian says was committed in self-defence.

Bulgaria’s highest court was scheduled to hear an appeal against his parole – granted last month – on 23 October but, amid a rising tide of populist protest over the decision to release him, it has brought forward the hearing to 7 October.

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Electoral system review must look at trust in democracy, Labor frontbencher says

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Andrew Giles says a well developed policy agenda means little if it has to contend with ‘resigned cynicism’

The Labor frontbencher Andrew Giles says the inevitable postmortem from the 2019 election needs to be broader than examining whether the electoral system is delivering for voters. It also needs to consider questions of accountability and trust.

Giles, the opposition spokesman on cities and urban infrastructure and a former deputy chair of the joint standing committee on electoral matters, told a seminar at the University of Melbourne that policy agendas meant little to voters in 2019 “if no one believes it could ever be delivered”.

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Donald Trump’s bizarre logic damages US allies’ trust in intelligence sharing | Daniel Flitton

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The US president appears to believe Australian spies are part of a deep-state conspiracy. Australia should be wary of the risks of getting drawn into his defence

It really is a poke in the eye – the “Five Eyes”, that is. Donald Trump’s telephone call to Scott Morrison, revealed on Tuesday in the New York Times, where he pressed for help in investigating the origins of the Mueller inquiry, will doubtless put a further strain on what is otherwise a very close intelligence-sharing partnership between the United States and Australia.

Why? Because aside from the unwanted political distraction of putting Australia at the centre of another Trump tirade (just as Morrison was seeking to apply the blowtorch to Labor at home for what he called “naive and immature” remarks about China), the twisted logic of Trump’s allegation is truly extraordinary.

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Downer’s relaying of conversation with Trump aide caught PM and colleagues by surprise

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Sources insist Alexander Downer’s talk with America’s top diplomat in London about conversation with George Papadopoulos was unauthorised

Alexander Downer relayed information to the American chargé d’affaires in London in July 2016 about his now infamous conversation with George Papadopoulos, then a foreign policy adviser to Trump – a move that took the then prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and senior colleagues by surprise.

Guardian Australia understands Downer’s conversation with Papadopoulos was recorded in a diplomatic cable back to Canberra.

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The Queen’s head next to a meat pie? Aussie icons join monarch on Australian coins

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‘Great Aussie Coin Hunt’ a boon for brands, with Vegemite, Iced VoVos and Zooper Doopers scoring their own $1 coins

Australia’s postal service has released a series of commemorative $1 coins featuring images of the long-running television soap Neighbours, the word “g’day” and a mythical ape-like creature called a yowie.

Related: Australian $50 note typo: spelling mistake printed 46 million times

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Liberal senator to outline a model for an Indigenous voice to parliament

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Andrew Bragg wants to honour the Uluru Statement of the Heart and uphold parliamentary sovereignty

The Liberal senator Andrew Bragg says an Indigenous voice to parliament should be formed by a network of Indigenous communities across the country, in a “bottom-up” approach that would ensure First Nation voices had a direct say to parliament.

Bragg, who has strongly endorsed constitutional recognition, will use a speech in Canberra today to build the case for an Indigenous voice to parliament, outlining a model that he says would honour the Uluru Statement of the Heart, while also upholding parliamentary sovereignty.

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Australia hid documents about submarine deal to avoid offending Japan

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New data shows Australia is second biggest arms importer but deals frequently shrouded in secrecy

The Australian government kept documents about its multibillion-dollar submarine project secret from the public to avoid offending a foreign power, and spent $150,000 over four years to stop their release.

Australia’s growing involvement in the international arms trade is frequently shrouded in secrecy. The government has routinely blocked freedom of information requests for documents on arms deals, including weapons exports to countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, by citing national security or potential harm to international relations.

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Australia’s relationship with China in a ‘terrible’ state after Morrison’s US visit, Labor says

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Richard Marles accuses PM of taking ‘pot shots against our largest trading partner’ amid US-China tensions

Labor’s shadow defence minister, Richard Marles, says Australia’s relationship with China is in a “terrible” state following Scott Morrison’s visit to the United States.

Speaking fresh from a visit to Beijing, Marles said that Morrison’s “megaphone diplomacy” alongside Donald Trump about China’s status as a developing country had inflamed tensions.

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RSPCA accuses government of backflip on welfare for live exports from Australia

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Heat stress guidelines would ‘prohibit or substantially reduce’ live export during northern summer says new policy document

The RSPCA has accused the federal government of making a “backflip on animal welfare safeguards” with the release of a policy document outlining options for the live export of sheep to the Middle East.

The discussion paper, released on Friday, outlines four possible options to govern the live sheep export trade from Australia to the Middle East from 2020 onwards.

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Sailing trio voice relief after P&O cruise ship rescue in South Pacific

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Seasoned sailors were picked up after their boat sank off the coast of New Caledonia

Three sailors who were rescued by a cruise ship when their yacht went down in the Pacific Ocean say they are relieved to have made it back to dry land.

Seasoned Newcastle sailors Chris Doran, his cousin Kevin Doran and Ben Johnson, from Vanuatu, had spent months in the South Pacific and were headed back to Queensland when their boat, Liberty, struck a discarded mooring line about 5.30am on Thursday and began to sink.

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Canada murders: fugitives who killed three planned for more victims, say police

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Killers recorded video confessions of murders of Australian tourist, his American girlfriend and Canadian professor

The two fugitives responsible for a frantic manhunt across Canada recorded video confessions for the murders of three people – and planned for more victims before killing themselves, police revealed Friday.

At a press conference in Vancouver, the Royal Canadian Mounted police released a 13-page report detailing key findings of the extensive investigation, including the recovery six videos and three images from a camera.

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Yang Hengjun: detained blogger is being shackled in chains and interrogated

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Sources describe concerning treatment akin to ‘a convicted criminal awaiting execution’

The Australian political blogger and novelist, Yang Hengjun, is being shackled in chains and interrogated inside a Beijing detention centre, and told by authorities he could face the death penalty for espionage.

Detained in China since January, Yang continues to protest his innocence to authorities and says he can clear his name if he is able to speak with senior officials in the Chinese government.

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When Donald met Scott: a reporter’s view of Trump and his White House wonderland

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Australian PM Scott Morrison received a full-blown welcome from the US president. Katharine Murphy was on hand for an inside account

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Scott Morrison has made his first visit to the United States as prime minister. It was a trip that included a close encounter with the unpredictability of the Trump White House, a foreign policy pivot, and a backlash about a lack of climate policy action. Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, travelled, with the prime minister. Here is what she witnessed:

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Peter Dutton appeals federal court ruling over medical transfer of refugees

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Lawyers for refugees say case important given the government wants to repeal medevac legislation

Peter Dutton is seeking to appeal in the high court a federal court ruling relating to dozens of medical transfers of asylum seekers and refugees.

The government argued the federal court had no jurisdiction to hear cases brought on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers in offshore centres on Manus Island and Nauru, who were seeking urgent medical transfer to Australia.

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Inquiry urges Bishop and Pyne ministerial standards probe be reopened

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Senate committee says investigation into former ministers Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne was flawed and should be reopened

A Senate inquiry has called for the reopening of an investigation into the former ministers Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne taking industry jobs connected with their portfolios, saying the initial probe had failed to ask “crucial questions”.

The Senate inquiry into Bishop and Pyne’s post-political appointments delivered its report on Thursday, urging that the incoming secretary of the department of prime minister and cabinet reopen an investigation into whether ministerial standards were breached.

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