Category Archives: Australia news

Queensland to repeal police discipline system set up after Fitzgerald inquiry

Posted on by

Exclusive: Civil liberties experts sound alarm, saying ‘police have given us no reason to trust that they can investigate themselves impartially’

Queensland is poised to repeal the police disciplinary system established after the landmark Fitzgerald corruption inquiry, prompting concerns from civil liberties experts that the proposed changes have “fundamental” flaws.

Legislation to establish a new police discipline system was tabled in the state parliament last month, after years of pressure from the influential Queensland police union. The bill has bipartisan support and will likely pass later this year.

The police union president, Ian Leavers, has hailed the demise of “the old punitive police discipline system” established in 1990, in the immediate aftermath of the Fitzgerald inquiry.

The new system encourages the use of “management strategies” rather than formal sanctions for police misconduct and misbehaviour. Officers can no longer have their salary reduced. Complaints are to be “streamlined” to ensure they do not take longer than 12 months.

Related: Queensland police accused of 'whitewash' over investigation into shredded rape file

Continue reading...

Even in its dying days, the government denies the need for climate action | Peter Lewis

Posted on by

The reckoning for this failure will come at the next election. And it can’t come soon enough

For all the skittishness of Australian politics through the years of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments there’s been one factor that has been remarkably consistent.

Amid leadership coups, cultural offensives and the revolving door of energy policy acronyms, the Australian public has remained steadfast in its belief that more needs to be done to address climate.

Continue reading...

Bushwalkers missing for four days in Victorian alps found alive

Posted on by

Trevor Salvado, 60, and Jacinda Bohan, 58, had not been seen since leaving a caravan park in Bright on Friday morning

A Melbourne couple who went missing while bushwalking in Victoria’s alpine region have been found safe and well.

Trevor Salvado, 60, and Jacinta Bohan, 58, were found by a kayaker just after 11am on Tuesday at Buffalo River.

Continue reading...

Andrew Robb blames Turnbull and Joyce for ‘toxic’ relationship with China

Posted on by

Former trade minister delivers scathing criticism of Coalition colleagues for souring relations

The former trade minister Andrew Robb, who took an $880,000 job with a Chinese company as soon as he left parliament, has blasted his former party room colleagues and Australia’s security agencies for creating a “toxic” relationship with China.

Robb confirmed he had left Landbridge, which holds the lease over the Darwin port, late last year, after a health precinct project he had been working on was rejected by Beijing.

Continue reading...

Coalition relaxes visa rules to make it easier for farmers to hire skilled workers

Posted on by

Farmers say change ‘a good first step’ but separate agricultural visa still needed

Australia’s visa rules have been relaxed to make it easier for farmers to hire skilled workers.

Farmers have described the changes as a good first step but warned they are unlikely to dampen calls from the sector for a separate agricultural visa because labour shortages are mainly in lower skilled harvesting roles.

Continue reading...

Celia Hammond wins Liberal preselection in Julie Bishop’s seat

Posted on by

Former university vice-chancellor was backed by prominent conservatives including Mathias Cormann

Celia Hammond has been named the Liberal party’s candidate for Curtin, the safest blue-ribbon seat in Western Australia held by the former foreign minister Julie Bishop.

The former University of Notre Dame vice-chancellor, who was backed by prominent conservatives including the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, was preselected at a meeting on Sunday as the candidate for Curtin to fill the seat Bishop has held for two decades.

Continue reading...

Julian Burnside: Greens Kooyong candidate quits all-male social club

Posted on by

Barrister says he has been unable to convince Melbourne Savage Club to allow female members

The Greens candidate Julian Burnside has resigned as a member of an exclusive all-male Melbourne social club, after being questioned about it during an appearance on Sky News on Friday night.

The human rights barrister and candidate for the federal seat of Kooyong declared that “same-sex only clubs are a relic of the past” on Saturday, and said he was resigning from the Melbourne Savage Club – which describes itself as “one of Australia’s oldest private members’ clubs”.

Continue reading...

Hotel giant Accor accused of segregating Aboriginal guests into lower-quality rooms

Posted on by

Australian government to investigate claims French-owned Ibis Styles in Alice Springs reserved poorest accommodation for Indigenous visitors

The international hotel giant Accor has launched an investigation into allegations that staff at one of its Australian hotels have been segregating Aboriginal guests in lower quality rooms.

The French multinational company said on Friday it was “extremely saddened and disappointed” at the revelations, which were reported by the ABC’s Background Briefing program.

Continue reading...

Western Australia environment watchdog plans tougher curbs on emissions

Posted on by

EPA chief says new regulations are needed to meet Paris targets, putting future LNG projects under threat

Western Australia’s environmental protection authority has announced tough new measures aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from large projects.

The EPA, which works independently and makes recommendations to the WA government about whether new developments should be granted environmental approval, said on Thursday it was setting a “higher bar” for how it would assess the impact of major projects on the climate.

Continue reading...

Labor’s abortion policy: all the issues explained

Posted on by

The opposition’s plan to allow open up sexual health services to more women raises key questions about access, cost and state laws

Labor has announced a national sexual and reproductive health strategy to improve access to contraception and abortion. A major plank of this policy is to “support all women to access termination services in public hospitals”, raising a number of crucial questions:

Continue reading...

Nationals rebels put the boot into their leader as party feels regional backlash

Posted on by

Many MPs are exasperated with Michael McCormack and despairing about where they have washed up post-Barnaby Joyce

In practical terms it’s a strange thing to demand – calling on the leadership to pass a package that has no obvious prospect of passing the parliament without amendment in the time left available.

But six Queensland Nationals have elected to put the boot into their leader, Michael McCormack, for failing on two fronts: failing to pressure the Liberals to pass the so-called “big stick” package, which they believe will lower power prices, and failing to sign up to new taxpayer-backed investments in power generation. For most Nationals north of the New South Wales border, that means new coal generation.

Continue reading...

Scott Morrison leads PR sortie to reopened Christmas Island

Posted on by

PM hints it is possible asylum seekers with serious medical emergencies will still be treated in Australia

Scott Morrison has indicated it is possible that asylum seekers with serious medical emergencies will continue to be treated in Australia, while taking a pool of reporters to Christmas Island to showcase the facilities the government has reopened at an estimated cost of $1.4bn over four years.

The prime minister led reporters on a tour of the Christmas Island facilities on Wednesday. When pressed about why he was on the remote island, with reporters in tow, for what was self-evidently an expensive public relations sortie, Morrison declared it was “important for Australians to know this facility is up to the job”.

Continue reading...

Peter Dutton breached gift rules over caravan refurbishment, Labor says

Posted on by

Minister declared mobile office’s remodelling but there is no record of required repayment of gift’s value

Labor has accused Peter Dutton of breaching ministerial rules by failing to pay taxpayers for the value of his mobile office caravan’s refurbishment, gifted to him by a business in north Brisbane.

In May 2017 Dutton declared that Kedron Caravans had refurbished the caravan’s interior, but the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has revealed he is not among those who paid for gifts valued over $300 in 2017.

Continue reading...

Julian Burnside takes on Josh Frydenberg as Greens candidate for Kooyong

Posted on by

The refugee advocate sets up a four-way contest with the treasurer, Liberal-turned-independent Oliver Yates and Labor

The human rights lawyer and refugee advocate Julian Burnside will run as the Greens candidate for Kooyong at the next election.

In a statement that appeared in Nine newspapers and the Australian on Tuesday the prominent barrister said he would take on the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, in the blue-ribbon Liberal seat because he believes the “political system is broken”.

Continue reading...

Andrew Bolt, please stop implying that you know all the facts about George Pell

Posted on by

Clare Linane, whose husband Peter Blenkiron is a survivor of clerical child abuse, writes in response to Andrew Bolt’s defence of George Pell

I am a Ballarat local who has been living with the aftermath of child sexual abuse for many years. My husband, Peter Blenkiron, is a survivor of clergy abuse at 11-years-old. You met him whilst in Rome three years ago.

I am compelled to write to you after you expressed your opinion that George Pell has been falsely convicted.

Continue reading...

Victorian bushfires: 2,000 firefighters battle blazes as third emergency warning issued

Posted on by

Fire crews rush to build containment lines ahead of cold change expected to bring gusty winds and dry lightning

Firefighters in Victoria are rushing to build containment lines around fires burning east of Melbourne before “gusty and erratic” winds reach the area on Wednesday.

At least nine buildings, including homes, were destroyed in two out of control bushfires at Bunyip and Yinnar South in West Gippsland on Sunday, and an emergency warning was issued for a third near Dargo in the high country in east Gippsland.

Continue reading...

George Pell to be sued over alleged 1970s sexual abuse in Ballarat

Posted on by

Man was a complainant against disgraced cardinal in a second trial that was abandoned, and says ‘when I was told they had withdrawn the case I felt empty’

A man who says he was molested by George Pell when he was a boy in the 1970s will file a lawsuit against the disgraced cardinal in the supreme court in Melbourne, the Herald Sun reports.

The suit to be lodged on Monday is reported to name Pell, the trustees of Nazareth House, (formerly St Joseph’s), the State of ­Victoria and the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.

Continue reading...

The Killing Times: the massacres of Aboriginal people Australia must confront

Posted on by

Special report: Shootings, poisonings and children driven off cliffs – this is a record of state-sanctioned slaughter

• A massacre map of Australia’s frontier wars – interactive

The truth of Australia’s history has long been hiding in plain sight.

The stories of “the killing times” are the ones we have heard in secret, or told in hushed tones. They are not the stories that appear in our history books yet they refuse to go away.

Continue reading...

Labor pledges $60m to help victims of domestic violence rebuild their lives

Posted on by

Bill Shorten says money raised from banking fairness fund will provide tailored support packages for families

“Instead of asking ‘why did she stay’, we need to ask ‘where could she go’.”

Reframing the question of what options victims of family and domestic violence have in deciding to leave is behind Labor’s latest policy announcement which would see $60m committed to a program which helps tailor support packages for families needing to rebuild their lives.

Continue reading...