Category Archives: Australia news

Hakeem al-Araibi: extradition proceedings against refugee begin amid Australian protests

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Thai authorities order al-Araibi to appear in court as refugee’s supporters say Fifa and IOC must threaten sanctions

The extradition hearing for Hakeem al-Araibi has been forwarded to the Thai courts as advocates call for Fifa and the International Olympic Committee to threaten sanctions against Thailand and Bahrain, including suspending their memberships, over the continued detention of al-Araibi.

On Friday Nadthasiri Bergman, al-Araibi’s lawyer, said prosecutors had submitted an official request to the criminal court over Bahrain’s request to extradite al-Araibi.

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Queensland warned to prepare for ‘dangerous’ flooding as premier declares disaster

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Bureau of Meteorology expecting rainfall totals of up to 400mm per day for multiple days

Residents in northern Queensland have been warned to prepare for more downpours and flooding over the weekend and into next week amid a monsoon that has dumped more than 1.2 metres of rain in some places.

A huge swath of the state stretching 850km from Daintree in far north Queensland to Mackay in the southern end of the tropical belt has been designated as a flood watch zone. The area includes the Great Barrier Reef tourist centre of Cairns as well as parts of Cape York peninsula in the far north.

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Queensland floods: emergency dam release as Townsville hit by 1.1 metre of rain

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Up to 100 more homes face flooding after mayor orders high-risk plan to open floodgates on the Ross River dam

One hundred homes could be flooded in Townsville after the city’s mayor sanctioned the high-risk release of dam water to save the area from more widespread inundation following more than 1.1 metres of rain.

Announcing the emergency measure for the Ross River dam on Friday, the mayor Jenny Hill said there were no guarantees the plan would work. Between 90 and 100 homes downstream from the dam were being evacuated, she added.

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Australian jets may have killed 18 civilians in Mosul air strike, ADF admits

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Christopher Pyne says the deaths, which occurred during operations between Iraqi and allied forces, are ‘deeply regrettable’

Australian Defence Force officials have admitted between six and 18 civilians were killed in a Mosul airstrike involving Australian jets, but said they could not determine if Australian or allied missiles caused the deaths.

The defence minister, Christopher Pyne, described the deaths as “deeply regrettable” but said the 12-month investigation into the strike on 13 June 2017 could not come to a conclusion over who was at fault.

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Nearly half of Australians don’t think private health insurance is ‘essential’

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Growing number of people also find it difficult to understand what they are covered for

The number of people who believe private health insurance is essential has declined since five years ago, while more people agree that it is difficult to understand what is covered by their policies.

The findings are from in-depth, face-to-face interviews with more than 50,000 Australians in a year conducted by Roy Morgan researchers. The latest results are based on the 12 months to October 2018.

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Victorian doctors who object to abortion ‘attempting to delay or deny access’

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Study reveals failure of legal protections to ensure women’s access to terminations

Victorian doctors who conscientiously object to abortion are breaking the law by failing to refer women on to practitioners who will perform the procedure, leading to some women having abortions later than necessary or having the baby despite wanting a termination.

This was the finding from a study led by associate professor Louise Keogh at the University of Melbourne, who examined whether mandatory referral, introduced in Victoria during abortion law reforms in 2008, was making healthcare more accessible to women.

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Shark attacks around world fell by about one-quarter in 2018

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Four fatalities recorded, with the US and Australia experiencing the most attacks

The number of shark attacks around the world fell by about one-quarter last year, with the US and Australia reporting the highest number of them.

There were four fatalities worldwide, in line with the long-term average of six, according to the annual release of the Florida-based International Shark Attack File.

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Josh Frydenberg defends Coalition’s climate record as he faces challenge in Kooyong

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Treasurer says climate change is real and Scott Morrison’s government takes emissions reduction ‘very seriously’

Josh Frydenberg has defended the Coalition’s record on climate change and says he will work hard to earn the trust of his constituents in the face of a challenge from long-time Liberal and now independent Oliver Yates.

Yates, a former Macquarie banker and head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, confirmed on Wednesday he would run in Kooyong at the coming federal election, declaring Frydenberg deserved to be challenged because of a lack of action on the environment.

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Indonesia to let UN workers into West Papua as violence continues

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UNHCHR wants access after Indonesian military crackdown in response to guerrilla attack

Indonesia has agreed in principle to allow the UN office of the human rights commissioner into West Papua amid continuing violence in the region.

The long-running low-level insurgency violently escalated late last year, after West Papuan guerrillas attacked a construction site in Nduga, killing at least 17 people they claimed were Indonesian military but who Jakarta insists were civilian workers.

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What happened to the deal – and the refugees – surviving Australian and US politics? | Anne Richard

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I signed the agreement to resettle some of Australia’s refugees from Nauru and Manus Island in the US. I wanted to see how they are faring now

Two years ago, Australia’s then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull called to congratulate Donald Trump on his inauguration, and to elicit the new president’s support for continuing an agreement between Australia and the US. Australia had stopped thousands of asylum seekers from reaching its shores and had arranged to detain them on islands in the South Pacific; the US had agreed to resettle some in America. The transcript of the phone conversation makes clear that the deal was a top priority for Turnbull and an unwelcome surprise for Trump, who called it “a rotten deal”.

Related: US believed Australia would take more refugees in exchange for Nauru and Manus deal

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Murray Darling Basin Plan breaches Water Act, royal commission to find

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Commissioner to find $13bn plan to restore river took into account factors other than the environment’s needs when it set the amount of water needed to be bought back from irrigators

The Murray Darling Basin Plan is likely in breach of the commonwealth act that underpins it – the Water Act 2007, the South Australian royal commission into the plan is expected to find.

The report of the royal commission into the Murray Darling Basin Plan is being handed to the state governor on Tuesday but it is up to the SA government when it is released.

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Campaigners say case of Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi now an ‘emergency’

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• Al-Araibi has been detained in Thailand since November
• ‘We are clearly facing a human rights emergency’

Activists campaigning for the release of the Bahraini refugee footballer Hakeem al-Araibi, who has been detained in Thailand since November after an Interpol red notice was wrongly issued against him, say his plight has become an emergency.

The warnings came from Brendan Schwab of the World Players Association and the former Australia captain Craig Foster after news that Bahrain has formally submitted an extradition request for Al-Araibi’s return.

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Yumi Stynes calls Kerri-Anne Kennerley racist in on-air clash over Australia Day

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Studio 10 panellist accuses TV veteran of racism after she refers to rape during discussion about Invasion Day protests

The Studio 10 co-host Kerri-Anne Kennerley has been accused of racism by fellow panellist Yumi Stynes after the veteran presenter talked about sexual violence in Indigenous communities during a discussion about Invasion Day protests.

Kennerley attacked the motives of the protesters who want the date of Australia Day changed by implying they were ignoring the alleged rape of children and women in the “outback”.

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Hakeem al-Araibi’s detention not Sheikh Salman’s responsibility, AFC says

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Asian Football Confederation, which has come under fire for failing to call for the refugee footballer’s release, says its president was recused from overseeing the region 18 months ago

The Asian Football Confederation claims its president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, is not responsible for matters regarding the Thai detention of Hakeem al-Araibi because he was recused from overseeing the region 18 months ago out of conflict-of-interest concerns.

The new claim came in response to a call from the World Players Association for Salman to be disqualified from office if the refugee footballer was returned to Bahrain.

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Daintree River flooding: hundreds cut off after deluge breaks peak record

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Ferry crossing in far-north Queensland closed after 500mm of rain in 24 hours pushed river to highest level in 118 years

Hundreds of people remain cut off after a deluge pushed far-north Queensland’s Daintree River to a record level.

The river peaked at close to 12.6 metres on Saturday night, breaking a record that stood for 118 years.

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Festivalgoers hospitalised in NSW and Victoria after suspected drug-taking

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Eleven people left ill in Sydney and six near Ballarat after Australia Day long weekend music festivals

A teenage boy has been found with almost 600 capsules and $2,000 cash at a Sydney music festival where several people left critically ill due to drug use.

Six young men aged under 25 left the Hardcore Till I Die festival at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday in critical or serious conditions. All were either stable or discharged from hospital by Sunday.

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Naomi Osaka wins Australian Open final to seal back-to-back grand slams

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This time the tears were of joy. Tennis already had a star in Naomi Osaka; now it has a superstar. After squandering three match points at 5-3 in the second set, the 21-year-old Japanese regrouped brilliantly to beat the Czech Petra Kvitova 7-6 (2) 5-7 6-4 to win a dramatic Australian Open final. Her second consecutive grand slam title ensures she will be the new world No 1 and on this evidence, she might stay there for some time.

Related: Naomi Osaka v Petra Kvitova: Australian Open women's final – live!

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Huge crowds attend Invasion Day marches across Australia’s capital cities

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Scott Morrison talks of his ancestor’s arrival on the continent, and defends celebration of Australia Day

• Hundreds attend first dawn service to be held on Australia Day

Scott Morrison has said 26 January 1788 was “pretty miserable” for his ancestor, in a speech defending the celebration of Australia Day, while tens of thousands of people joined Invasion Day marches around the country calling for the public holiday to be abolished.

Morrison told a citizenship ceremony in Canberra that his fifth great grandfather, William Roberts, arrived with the first fleet in a group that was “wretched, naked, filthy, dirty, lousy, and many of them utterly unable to stand, or even to stir hand or foot”.

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The joy that comes from embracing trans identity shouldn’t be so rare | Andy Connor

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‘Gender euphoria’ is a concept whose time has come, and at this year’s Midsumma festival we got a chance to see it in full flight

As the chorus of voices lifted in the final kaleidoscopic song of Gender Euphoria, the first mainstage all-transgender show in Australian history, something rare and vital was communicated. So many trans stories are tragedies; it’s easy to miss the triumphs. So much of the world is still so stigmatising and cruel to trans people that it’s easy to overlook the joy. More than just relief at having escaped something, the show tells us, being trans is also about having found something. “Goodbye gender dysphoria,” proclaimed cabaret star Mama Alto, “Hello gender euphoria!”

Related: Shantay, you play: the drag queens of gaming

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