Category Archives: Australia news

Deadly skin-eating fungal disease wipes out 90 amphibian species in 50 years

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Study reveals extent of chytrid fungus and how devastating it has been for frog, toad and salamander species worldwide

A deadly disease that wiped out global populations of amphibians led to the decline of 500 species in the past 50 years, including 90 extinctions, scientists say.

A global research effort, led by the Australian National University, has for the first time quantified the worldwide impact of chytridiomycosis, or chytrid fungus, a fungal disease that eats away at the skin of amphibians.

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Penny Wong warns racism and hate speech in parliament threaten democracy

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Labor senator says those who ‘see political or commercial advantage in heightening cynicism’ are diminishing civic life

Penny Wong will say that “racism is a threat to our democracy” in a speech taking aim at those who see “political or commercial advantage” in increased cynicism towards public institutions.

The Labor senator is set to warn that hate speech and extremist views in parliament and a “lack of unity in response to these” have harmed democracy, pointing the finger in part at the Coalition for its tardy response to condemn One Nation in the 45th parliament.

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Pauline Hanson suggests Port Arthur massacre was a government conspiracy

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One Nation leader tells al-Jazeera reporter there are ‘a lot of questions’ about 1996 attack

Pauline Hanson has implied that the 1996 Port Arthur massacre was a government conspiracy, in comments recorded secretly by al-Jazeera.

Hidden camera footage, released by al-Jazeera as part of the undercover operation that revealed One Nation had sought a US$20m (A$28m) donation from the US gun lobby, showed the party’s leader saying she had “a lot of questions” about Port Arthur.

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Lawyer X informed for police for 19 months after she was official source, inquiry told

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Police continued to receive information from Nicola Gobbo until 27 August 2010, royal commission told

Police were still using Nicola Gobbo, the woman known as “Lawyer X”, as an informant for 19 months after she was deregistered as a confidential source, a royal commission has heard.

Gobbo, 46, was a registered police source in 1995, in 1999, and from September 2005 to January 2009, informing on a number of her own high-profile gangland clients, including Tony Mokbel.

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Briton arrested after fleeing Australia on a jetski, armed with crossbow

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Authorities catch up with 57-year-old, wanted on drugs charges, after he travelled 150km across the Torres Strait

A wanted British man has attempted to flee Australia on a jetski, travelling almost 150km (93 miles) across the Torres Strait while armed with a crossbow.

The 57-year-old man is subject to an outstanding warrant for drug-related charges in Western Australia.

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Austrian authorities raid far-right group over alleged links to Christchurch shooter

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Home of far-right ‘Identitarian’ raided after he received a large donation from a person sharing the same surname as Christchurch suspect

Austria’s chancellor called Tuesday for authorities to “ruthlessly” investigate possible ties between an Austrian nationalist group and the alleged Christchurch mosque gunman, after it emerged that a prominent far-right activist had received a donation in the suspected shooter’s name.

Martin Sellner, head of the Identitarian Movement of Austria, said on social media that police searched his apartment Monday and seized electronic devices after he received a “disproportionately high donation” from a person named Tarrant the same surname as the suspected Christchurch shooter.

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Australian bird on track for extinction found outside previously known habitat

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King Island brown thornbill was ranked the Australian bird most likely to go extinct within 20 years

Researchers say they have discovered one of Australia’s most endangered birds in forest in Tasmania, outside its previously known habitat.

Scientists from the Australian National University say the find is a rare piece of positive news for the King Island brown thornbill, which was last year ranked as the Australian bird most likely to go extinct within 20 years if nothing was done to secure its survival.

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William Tyrrell inquest: foster mother immediately thought ‘somebody has taken him’

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Two cars seen the morning William disappeared were gone by the time family realised he was missing, coroner told

William Tyrrell’s foster mother has told a coroner she immediately thought “someone has taken him” when the New South Wales town of Kendall fell quiet and the three-year-old boy vanished without a trace.

“I couldn’t hear a thing. It was silent, there was no wind, there were no birds,” the woman said in Sydney on Tuesday at an inquest into William’s disappearance and suspected death in September 2014.

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Backpacker charged after woman finds hidden camera in Bondi hostel bathroom

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Hong Kong man, 36, allegedly hid camera inside a deodorant stick which his French roommate spotted after she finished showering

A tourist from Hong Kong is behind bars after allegedly hiding a camera inside a deodorant stick in the bathroom of a hostel at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach.

The man’s roommate – a woman on holiday from France – had just finished showering when she spotted the camera and a toiletry bag on the sink of their shared ensuite on Monday night.

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One Nation’s James Ashby filmed seeking $20m from NRA to weaken Australia’s gun laws

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Al-Jazeera journalist posing as gun campaigner films senior party figures in Washington DC soliciting financial support to help One Nation seize the balance of power

Senior One Nation figures James Ashby and Steve Dickson have been caught seeking millions of dollars of political donations from US gun rights group the National Rifle Association in a bid to seize the balance of power and weaken Australia’s gun laws.

The revelations are contained in an al-Jazeera investigation which used hidden cameras and a journalist posing as a grassroots gun campaigner to expose the far-right party’s extraordinary efforts to secure funding in Washington DC in September.

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‘Now I own my life’: Saudi sisters who fled family granted asylum

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Pair, given asylum in undisclosed country, faced recriminations in kingdom

Two Saudi sisters who say they were beaten and treated like slaves by their brothers and father have been granted asylum in an undisclosed country.

The women, aged 18 and 20, ran away from their family last September while on holiday in Sri Lanka and have been stranded in Hong Kong since an abandoned attempt to reach Australia, where they hoped to secure asylum.

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Asian stocks slump as US recession fears grip markets

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Australian treasury yields hit a record low in a grim portent for the economy, while the Nikkei falls 3% in wider share selloff

Shares in Asia Pacific have slumped after a key market indicator flashed an “amber warning” that the United States is heading for a recession.

Bond yields also continued to fall across the world with Australian 10-year treasury yields falling to a record low on Monday of 1.756% in what analysts see as a strong indicator of a downturn hitting the resource-rich country.

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Morrison government set to offer taxpayer backing for Queensland power

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Nationals MPs have demanded action to underwrite new energy generation before the election

The energy minister, Angus Taylor, has signalled to restive Queensland Nationals that taxpayer backing for a dispatchable energy project is on the way as one of the rebel MPs has warned a decision is necessary before the election.

With cabinet set to consider energy among a range of issues on Tuesday, with the budget looming and the federal election now only weeks way, Taylor told journalists it was “critically important” that Queensland see more competition in power generation, and more dispatchable supply.

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Cyclone Trevor: racism claims denied as Northern Territory begins clean-up

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  • Claims fly-in fly-out workers given better accommodation than Indigenous evacuees
  • Cyclone Veronica continues to threaten WA’s Pilbara region

As the Northern Territory begins its big mop-up after Cyclone Trevor, local authorities have hosed down racism claims concerning evacuation efforts.

Trevor forced mass evacuations before it made landfall on Saturday morning as a category four system, with destructive winds gusting up to 250km/h.

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NSW election: Gladys Berejiklian confident Coalition will win a majority

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Government clings to power despite big gains from minor parties and independents

Gladys Berejiklian has said she is confident the Coalition will return to government in New South Wales with a razor-thin majority as counting continues after Saturday’s state election.

The premier, who is the daughter of Armenian migrants, reiterated her objection to comments by the Labor leader, Michael Daley, about young Sydneysiders leaving the city and being replaced by “Asians”, which surfaced in the final week of the campaign, suggesting her background had helped her connect with voters.

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Cyclone Trevor lashes Northern Territory coast with destructive winds

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Residents of Port Hedland and Karratha in Western Australia prepare for Cyclone Veronica, due to hit on Sunday morning

Cyclone Trevor has struck the Northern Territory as a category four system, hammering remote communities with destructive 250 km/h winds and torrential rain.

It was one of two monster storm fronts bearing down on northern Australia this weekend – cyclone Veronica was hurtling towards the Pilbara region in Western Australia.

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Alleged far-right extremist charged with threatening lawyer and journalist

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Sydney man Nathan Sykes accused of making violent threats to Melbourne lawyer and journalist Luke McMahon

An alleged far-right extremist has been charged in Sydney with threatening a Melbourne lawyer and journalist who had written about him.

Nathan Sykes was arrested at his Brighton-Le-Sands home on Friday morning and taken to Newtown police station where he was charged with three counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence; and two counts of using a carriage service to threaten serious harm.

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Labor pledges $60m to divert vulnerable borrowers from payday lenders

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Plan would enable 76,800 low-cost loans each year to those in financial hardship

Labor has pledged $60m for financial services that divert vulnerable borrowers from high-interest payday lenders.

The policy picks up on the recommendation of a Senate inquiry to expand no interest loans schemes to prevent low-income Australians being plunged into a cycle of debt due to unexpected expenses such as medical procedures and broken household appliances.

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Bangers and ballots: everything you need to know about the NSW election

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There’s a good chance Saturday’s poll will produce a hung parliament. Here’s how to make your vote count – and where to buy your democracy sausage

Almost 5.3 million people are enrolled to vote at more than 8,000 voting stations in Saturday’s state election. New South Wales has fixed terms, with elections held on the fourth Saturday in March every four years since 1995. About a quarter of voters cast their ballot before election day in 2015, and this is expected to rise in 2019. Almost 850,000 people had voted by Thursday morning.

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Final Wittenoom residents to be forced out of asbestos-ridden mining town

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Western Australian government to compulsorily acquire properties in deadly Pilbara site, where there are fears for tourists who still visit the area

Landowners who refuse to move from the most contaminated site in the southern hemisphere will have their properties compulsorily acquired by the Western Australian government.

A bill to finalise the closure of the former asbestos mining town Wittenoom in the Pilbara, which was de-gazetted in 2007, was due to be introduced to state parliament on Wednesday.

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