Neil Parker said he had to ‘carry his leg’ after breaking it in a six-metre fall down a waterfall at Mount Nebo, north-west of Brisbane in Queensland
A Queensland bushwalker has said he had to “carry his leg” as he crawled for two days to safety after it “clean snapped in half” in a six-metre fall down a waterfall.
Neil Parker, 54, fractured his leg and wrist in the fall on Sunday while walking by himself in Cabbage Tree Creek on Mount Nebo, north-west of Brisbane.
Continue reading...Intelligence officer Cameron Ortis had access to classified information from Five Eyes allies, including Australia
Canada is seeking to reassure its Five Eyes intelligence allies in the wake of a massive alleged spying leak that may be linked to an Australian drug-smuggling criminal syndicate.
Cameron Ortis, the director general of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s intelligence unit, has been charged over allegations he was trying to sell secrets to a foreign agent or terrorist group. He had access to classified information from Canada’s Five Eyes global allies, including Australia.
Continue reading...Cases of British-Australians Kylie Moore-Gilbert and Jolie King, and King’s Australian partner, Mark Firkin, were revealed last week
Iran’s judiciary has confirmed it has detained three Australian citizens, alleging they were arrested for spying and taking images from sensitive areas.
Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaeili confirmed the arrests in a press conference in Tehran.
Continue reading...Anna Katzmann said Huang could only use the money to pay debt to ATO or for living or legal expenses
A judge will today reveal her reasons for slapping a $140m asset freezing order on controversial businessman and political donor Huang Xiangmo after an application by the Australian taxation office.
At an urgent hearing in Sydney on Monday, federal court judge Anna Katzmann ordered Huang not to dispose of assets worth up to the $140.9m claimed by the ATO, including more than $6m worth of property in Sydney and an apartment in Hong Kong.
Continue reading...Government accused of ‘demonising vulnerable people’ after only 100 of the 5,000 people on the program allowed to leave
Only 100 of the more than 5,000 people on the cashless welfare card trial have been allowed off the scheme, and the process for exemption has been labelled humiliating and hard to understand.
The government argues the card, which stores up to 80% of a welfare recipient’s payment for use at selected stores, leads to a reduction in violence and harm related to drinking alcohol, illegal drug use and gambling.
Continue reading...Some Liberals are concerned about the power to break up big companies being extended economy-wide
The Morrison government’s backbench economics committee has signed off on the long telegraphed “big stick” package but MPs, already uncomfortable about the proposal, have expressed reservations about how it might be amended in the Senate.
The package, which contains a power to break up big energy companies if they engage in price gouging, will go to the Coalition party room for approval on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Labor will resume demands for MP to make a statement to parliament on her links to Chinese Communist party groups. All today’s events in Canberra, live
Frank Bainimarama will meet Scott Morrison today – it is his first visit since becoming Fijian prime minister.
The parliament is all set up with the official welcome mat – there will be canons - and we’ll have the happy cool friends photo opportunity a little later this morning. It’s also the pair’s first meeting since Bainimarama criticised Morrison’s attitude at the Pacific Islands forum, but both have since said everything is fine.
The other big issue apparently keeping the National party up at night, is plant and legume based foods and liquids being sold with the same terminology as animal products.
Because apparently, vegetarians and vegans are very, very confused and don’t realise that almond milk doesn’t come from cows. As Helen Davidson reported on the weekend from the National party conference:
The Nationals meeting also voted in favour of a motion to lobby the federal government to change labelling requirements on vegan food, preventing products such as soy milk, almond milk and vegan meat from being branded as such.
Under current laws, only milk from cows can be labelled “milk” without an added qualifier.
Continue reading...Seventy-six-year-old suffered head injuries when he veered off a bike path and hit a fence post in Wollongong
A man has died of head injuries after he was startled by a magpie and crashed his bicycle in Wollongong.
The 76-year-old was riding a pushbike on an off-road path alongside Nicholson Park at Woonona on Sunday morning when he veered off to avoid a swooping magpie, witnesses reported.
Continue reading...Cambridge-educated lecturer in Islamic Studies at Melbourne University has been in prison in Tehran for almost a year
The third foreign national revealed this week to be imprisoned in Iran has been named by the Australian government as Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Melbourne academic who has published work on the 2011 Arab uprisings and on authoritarian governments.
Moore-Gilbert, a dual UK-Australian national, is Cambridge educated and worked as a lecturer in Islamic Studies at Melbourne University. She has been in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for almost a year.
Continue reading...Researchers are building a picture of palorchestids, which had tapir-like skulls and large scimitar-like claws
The “strange” anatomy of a family of giant marsupials that roamed eastern Australia and Tasmania for much of the past 25m years has been revealed in a new study.
Scientists had already figured out that palorchestids had tapir-like skulls and large “scimitar-like claws”, but little was known about the limbs of one of the “strangest marsupial lineages to have existed”, according to the paper published by a group of Australian researchers.
Continue reading...Guardian Australia reports from three communities hard hit by one of the worst droughts in living memory
Australia is experiencing one of its most severe droughts on record, resulting in desperate water shortages across large parts of New South Wales and southern Queensland. Dams in some parts of western NSW have all but dried up, with rainfall levels through the winter in the lowest 10% of historical records in some areas.
The crisis in the far west of the state became unavoidable after the mass fish kills along the lower Darling River last summer, but now much bigger towns closer to the coast, including Dubbo, are also running out of water.
Continue reading...Australia’s funding cuts force hundreds of homeless refugees to plead to be taken into immigration detention
Once a military command post, the two-storey lime green building in Kalideres, West Jakarta, is now essentially a refugee camp.
More than 400 refugees are temporarily housed here in small dome tents squashed into every room and spilling out into the concrete car park. There is no running water, electricity, bathroom facilities or any certainty of food. A few days ago someone delivered biscuits, but there has been nothing since.
Continue reading...Corporate watchdog says criminal investigation is nearly complete and it is in discussions about way forward
A criminal investigation into Clive Palmer and the collapse of Queensland Nickel is nearly finished and the corporate regulator is in discussions with other government agencies about what to do next, federal parliament has been told.
“We are at the point where we are in discussions with other government agencies about the appropriate way forward,” the Australian Securities and Investments Commission commissioner, John Price, told a parliamentary committee on Friday.
Continue reading...Labor renews calls for embattled MP to explain alleged links to Chinese Communist party
Labor has renewed calls for Liberal MP Gladys Liu to explain links to Chinese associations despite Scott Morrison labelling the tactic “grubby”.
On Friday the controversy around the member for Chisholm grew after the Herald Sun reported that Liu had failed to file a return declaring a $39,675 donation to the Victorian Liberal party in 2015-16.
Continue reading...Meth, cocaine and ecstasy found stashed under seaweed off Western Australia after yacht used by alleged smugglers ran aground
Three more men have been charged over a massive A$1bn drug haul found on a tiny island off Western Australia after a yacht ran aground and was abandoned, sparking a search for its occupants.
Police launched a raid on Burton Island off the port town of Geraldton last week, finding Frenchman Antoine Dicenta, 51, and British man Graham Palmer, 34, allegedly with 1.087 tonne of methylamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy in dozens of bags that they had attempted to hide under seaweed.
Continue reading...David Littleproud’s comments to parliament entirely at odds with earlier statement to Guardian Australia
Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, now says he accepts the science on manmade climate change, and “[I] always have”.
Littleproud’s comments to the House of Representatives on Thursday were entirely at odds with a written statement he made to Guardian Australia on Tuesday. In response to questions, Littleproud said: “I don’t know if climate change is man-made.”
Continue reading...Canberra’s adherence to a hawkish US policy has undermined its ability to negotiate with the paranoid and sanctions-squeezed regime in Tehran
It was the trip of a lifetime, a globe-trotting adventure halfway across the world, chronicled online for family and friends back home and for followers online.
But in the eyes of the regime in Tehran – squeezed by sanctions and paranoid about the motives of outsiders – the act of flying a drone near a military installation on the outskirts of the Iranian capital appeared as an act of espionage.
Continue reading...Couple left Perth in 2017 and had been documenting their travels as they drove to London before being detained in Tehran’s Evin prison
The Australian couple being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison have been named as Jolie King and Mark Firkin, who were reportedly arrested 10 weeks ago near the Iranian capital.
Firkin and King, who also holds a British passport, have been blogging a globe-trotting adventure since 2017 as they endeavoured to drive from Australia to London. Despite diplomatic efforts to keep their cases from public attention, the pair was named overnight on social media.
Continue reading...Teoh, who despite running one of Australia’s largest telcos has managed to maintain anonymity, runs gauntlet of media
Finally, the reclusive billionaire emerged. David Teoh, estimated to be worth $3bn, made his debut before the cameras on a fine spring day outside the federal court in Melbourne on Wednesday.
As he stepped into the witness stand shortly after 3pm, Teoh gave away the extraordinary level of anonymity he’d been able to maintain even while running one of Australia’s biggest telecommunications companies, TPG.
Continue reading...Two British-Australian women believed to be in prison, while location of Australian man is unknown
Three Australian citizens – two of whom also hold British passports – have been arrested and detained in Iran.
A female British-Australian academic who has been teaching at a university in Australia was arrested several months ago, sources confirmed to the Guardian.
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