Yang, who has been detained for six months, is expected to be charged with endangering national security
Australian writer Yang Hengjun is expected to be formally charged with endangering national security, according to his lawyer.
Yang, a Chinese public intellectual who has long advocated for democratic reforms in China, has been detained for the last six months in an unknown location in China.
Continue reading...South Australian man and his son found the bottle, which was dropped from an ocean liner by 13-year-old Paul Gilmore in 1969
The British author of a message in a bottle that recently washed up on the South Australian coast after more than half a century has been found – and he is currently out to sea, his sister says.
South Australian man Paul Elliot and his son Jyah told ABC radio they found the bottle on the Eyre Peninsula’s west coast recently while fishing.
Continue reading...The Australian businessman says he’s ‘so horrified’ by his cash rebate amount and wants the scheme means-tested
The Australian businessman Dick Smith has called for the franking credits system to be reformed after revealing he was once handed $500,000 in cash rebates in a single year.
When Smith was told he would soon receive what he called “ridiculous money”, he complained to the tax office and requested that the agency close down his self-managed super fund.
Continue reading...Photographers from Sydney to Brasilia capture July’s stunning partial lunar eclipse
Stargazers around the world have enjoyed a view of a global lunar eclipse, delighting people from Dehli to Dublin.
The partial eclipse was visible in nearly every part of the world except for North America and the polar climes of Greenland and northern Russia.
Continue reading...Former Minneapolis officer is in jail after being found guilty of Australian life coach’s murder and manslaughter
The former Minneapolis police officer who shot dead Australian life coach Justine Damond in an alley has made a move for freedom with his lawyers, citing potential “prosecutorial misconduct”, filing an appeal against his murder and manslaughter convictions.
The appeal comes as Mohamed Noor, sentenced to 12 and a half years behind bars last month, was transferred to a new prison for “his own safety”.
Continue reading...By suggesting switching jobs can even out the power imbalance between employers and employees, Treasury hinted at an obvious solution
Treasury caused consternation in the labour movement on Tuesday by suggesting the best way to win a pay rise might be to switch jobs.
It looked to unions like an attempt to blame workers for their bosses’ failure to grant a pay rise.
Continue reading...Lock N Climb awarded $25,000 contract when firm’s president still serving court-imposed probation for bribery offence
Australia’s defence department gave tens of thousands of dollars of work to a US firm blacklisted for corruption and bribery.
Defence last year contracted US firm Lock N Climb to provide it with $25,000 of specialist ladders used for aircraft maintenance. The work was awarded through a limited tender process, meaning other firms were restricted from competing for the contract.
Continue reading...Sydney and other airports have experienced delays caused by problems with the electronic smart-gate passport processing
A nationwide security outage believed to be linked to Australian Border Force terminals is causing delays at airports across Australia.
The outage caused delays of between 15 and 30 minutes at airports including Sydney and Brisbane on Monday morning.
Continue reading...The cost of keeping China out of the region is too great, we must build forces that could counter its operations instead
Let’s be honest: Australians have never had much time for our South Pacific neighbours.
The island nations that lie to our north and north-east, stretching from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to Vanuatu, Fiji and beyond, may be close to us geographically, but we have not found them especially interesting, important or profitable.
Continue reading...One-year-old Josiah Ntiamoah died after being hit by a car at the front of a Green Valley home
A one-year-old boy who died after he was struck by a car in a driveway in Sydney’s west is believed to be the son of Olympic athlete Isaac Ntiamoah.
The toddler was hit by the car at the front of a Green Valley home about 3pm on Friday, New South Wales police said in a statement. His mother took him to Liverpool hospital but he died a short time later.
Continue reading...Ambitious export plan could generate billions and make Australia the centre of low-cost energy in a future zero-carbon world
The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep in the Northern Territory, is not the most obvious place to build and transmit Singapore’s future electricity supply. Though few in the southern states are yet to take notice, a group of Australian developers are betting that will change.
If they are right, it could have far-reaching consequences for Australia’s energy industry and what the country sells to the world.
Continue reading...For a special membership fee, developers will have access to Liberal National party events such as cocktail receptions
The Queensland Liberal National party will offer property developers free cocktails and other perks as part of a paid “diamond membership” package, following the state’s ban on them making political donations.
At its annual convention, which is being held across three days this weekend, the party said it would institute the new membership scheme, which allows developers and others to pay a $990 special membership fee.
Continue reading...Steven John McGillivray pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and inappropriately accessing woman’s details
A former Victorian police officer has avoided jail after repeatedly misusing the force’s database to look up a woman’s details and then turning up at her house.
Steven John McGillivray, 50, was convicted in Melbourne magistrates court on Friday after pleading guilty to misconduct in public office and inappropriately accessing the woman’s details four times between 2014 and 2017.
Continue reading...The outage could also have significant impact on welfare recipients, who use MyGov to contact Centrelink
As thousands of Australians try to submit their tax returns, the main online portal for federal government services has gone down.
In an outage that will also affect thousands of welfare recipients across the country, the MyGov site appeared to be unavailable on Friday morning, returning an error.
Continue reading...‘We all hit the roof,’ passenger says after plane forced to land in Honolulu
Dozens of people on an Air Canada flight to Australia have been injured after the plane encountered unexpected turbulence, forcing it to land in Hawaii.
The flight from Vancouver to Sydney encountered “unforecasted and sudden turbulence” about two hours past Hawaii and diverted to Honolulu, according to an Air Canada spokeswoman, Angela Mah.
Continue reading...Labor says deputy premier John Barilaro’s plan is outrageous while the Greens label it ‘criminal’
New South Wales Labor has demanded Gladys Berejiklian rule out Liberal party support for a Nationals bill that would open up the Murray Valley national park to logging.
The premier refused to comment on Thursday after the deputy premier, John Barilaro, vowed to de-gazette the park in the state’s Riverina region or reduce its size.
Continue reading...Crowds of tourists are scaling the world heritage-listed site against the wishes of the traditional owners
Tourists are travelling to Uluru to climb the rock, against the wishes of the traditional owners, to get in before the practice is banned in October.
Parks Australia said there were “certainly visitors travelling with the intention of climbing Uluru before the climb closure comes into effect”.
Continue reading...Kickstart the domestic market so Asian countries rejecting Australian waste is no longer a problem, industry suggests
Australia could quickly solve the problem of Indonesia and other countries rejecting its waste if governments invested in recycling manufacturing as promised and required the use of recycled material in public projects, industry and environmental groups say.
Jakarta announced on Tuesday it would return 210 tonnes of Australian household rubbish – the latest demonstration of opposition in south-east Asia to receiving exported waste. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have each turned back shipments and warned they would not become dumping grounds for developed countries after China banned imports of foreign plastic rubbish.
Continue reading...Australian prime minister Scott Morrison speaks about the debate around freedom of religion at the opening of the national conference of the evangelical Hillsong church. 'It’s not the laws that makes freedom of religion work, it’s the culture that accepts it,' he tells a crowd of 21,000 people. 'I speak about my faith ... because I want everyone in this place to feel comfortable talking about their faith in this country. It’s not a political agenda, it’s who we are.' Morrison says while freedom of belief in Australia is fundamental, Christians need to prioritise love over judgments. He used the example of persecuted Christians in Soviet Russia: 'You didn’t hear the stories that they were complaining about their rights. They were out there for God ... This country needs more love, less judgment'
Continue reading...Australian student who was detained by the regime breaks his silence
Alek Sigley, the Australian student who was detained by North Korea for a little over a week before being released, has rejected the regime’s accusation that he was a spy.
Sigley, 29, returned to social media late on Wednesday, where he released a brief statement after assuring everyone he was well, mentally and physically.
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