Category Archives: Australia news

Push to save John Pesutto from bankruptcy after $2.3m Moira Deeming defamation costs order

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Online fundraiser launched as former Victorian Liberal leader hopes to avoid being forced to resign from parliament if he is unable to pay the sum

Friends of the former Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto have launched an online fundraiser in a bid to help him “avoid the possibility of bankruptcy” after he was ordered to pay more than $2.3m in costs following his loss in a defamation case brought by the Liberal MP Moira Deeming.

The federal court registrar Alison Legge handed down the decision during a short hearing on Friday in which she ordered Pesutto pay $2,308,873.11 in legal costs.

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From ‘architecturally tricky’ to ‘awe-inspiring’: winners of NSW’s 2025 National Trust heritage awards revealed

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Country hospital brought back from the ashes wins top heritage prize

A colonial country hospital almost totally destroyed by fire more than two decades ago has won the top prize in the National Trust of Australia (NSW) heritage awards.

The recognition of heritage architecture and conservation projects in the built and natural environment takes place across each state annually. New South Wales staged its awards on Friday, announcing 20 winners across 10 categories.

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Larissa Waters urges Labor to be bold while Liberals in ‘electoral wilderness’ and says Greens hurt by ‘Trump effect’

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New federal Greens leader says current political climate an opportunity for ‘real reform’ on environmental protections

Larissa Waters has urged Labor to be bold on environmental protections, saying the Liberal party being left in the “electoral wilderness” means now is the time for the Albanese government to go against its “timidity”.

The new federal Greens leader – who was elected unopposed on Thursday – has also acknowledged her party was a casualty of the Trump effect, sending voters “into the arms of Labor”.

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Juror discharged from mushroom lunch trial as child protection worker reveals what Erin Patterson told her

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Victorian supreme court judge says he received information the juror had been discussing Patterson’s case with family and friends

A juror has been discharged from the triple murder trial of Erin Patterson, after Justice Christopher Beale said he had received information the person had been discussing the case with family and friends.

Beale told the jury he had received information the juror had been discussing the case with family and friends contrary to his directions.

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Judge suggests NSW police had ‘absolutely no evidence’ to justify main strip-search in class action

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Justice Dina Yehia says manner force conducted its defence ‘is a matter, I’ll be quite honest with you, of grave concern to me’

A Sydney judge says the way the New South Wales police force defended a claim it unlawfully strip-searched a woman at a music festival – including a last-minute admission – was “of grave concern to me”.

Justice Dina Yehia made the comment in the NSW supreme court during closing arguments in a class action against the police.

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Lidia Thorpe says she would not rejoin Greens ‘even if my daughter became leader’ – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

The Reserve Bank is watching closely as the last data domino falls before a pivotal rates meeting.

The RBA’s preferred measure of inflation – the trimmed mean – fell back into target at 2.9% in April, but tightness in the labour market remains a concern for the central bank.

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Sperm donor who claims he fathered more than 180 children loses custody battle

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UK judge rejects Robert Albon’s application for parental right of three-year-old girl he had with woman in Durham

An unregistered sperm donor who says he has fathered more than 180 children has failed to gain custody of a three-year-old child he had with a Durham woman, who said she was left “broken” and “suicidal” by their encounter.

Robert Albon, who goes by the pseudonym “Joe Donor” and has appeared on This Morning and in a Channel 4 documentary, applied to have the girl live with him after a court deemed her mother was unable to look after her.

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‘Turning point’: claw print fossils found in Australia rewrite story of amniotes by 40 million years

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The discovery by two local fossil hunters on a river bank in Victoria has ‘potentially far-reaching implications’, scientists say

Fossilised claw prints found in Australia suggest amniotes – the ancestors of reptiles, birds and mammals – evolved about 40m years earlier than thought.

The footprints, in sandstone dated 354m to 358m years old, were probably made by reptiles crossing a surface dimpled by raindrops. Researchers said the trackways represent the oldest evidence of amniotes on the planet.

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Colourful price tags at Australian chemists may trick shoppers into buying full-price items, Choice says

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Survey from consumer advocacy group finds some customers confused by bright stickers and tags not necessarily advertising actual discounts

Promotional price tags used by major chemists may be enticing shoppers towards products that are not discounted at all, with new research finding bright labels are confusing one in three customers.

Consumer advocacy organisation Choice found that some pharmacies said they were offering discounts from the recommended retail price (RRP) despite having never charged the higher rate, which is a suggestion from the manufacturer.

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‘Tears blur my vision’: Australian writer jailed in Beijing thanks Albanese for support in emotional letter

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Yang Hengjun writes he can ‘only use a silent voice to thank you and all the people who care for and love me’

Jailed Chinese-Australian academic Yang Hengjun has written to Anthony Albanese from his prison cell in Beijing, thanking him for repeatedly expressing Australia’s “grave concerns” about his deteriorating health to Chinese officials.

Yang, who was given a suspended death sentence by a Chinese court in February 2024 after already serving five years in detention on espionage charges that he denies, told the prime minister “words are now failing me”.

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Erin Patterson showed no sign of liver damage experienced by other mushroom lunch attenders, trial hears

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Victorian jury also sees images appearing to show accused disposing of food dehydrator at tip, and hears from expert who examined lunch leftovers

An expert in emergency medicine who reviewed Erin Patterson’s medical records says her condition was consistent with someone who had a diarrhoeal illness, but there was no biochemical evidence of liver injury.

Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to the lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, Victoria on 29 July 2023.

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Five vice-chancellors in Victoria paid more than $1m in 2024, prompting claims of ‘largesse’

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Union says universities blaming budget deficits for job cuts while pushing executive salaries ‘into the stratosphere’

Just three of Victoria’s vice-chancellors took pay cuts last year despite growing outside pressure to address “broken” university governance and accusations of “executive largesse”.

The universities’ latest annual reports, tabled in state parliament on Tuesday, showed six of Victoria’s nine vice-chancellors increased their pay or left it unchanged last year compared with 2023.

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Experts warn Trump order demanding cheaper medicines for US could push up Australian prices

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Faced with lower US profits, pharmaceutical companies could demand higher prices elsewhere in the world, or even withdraw products entirely

Donald Trump’s pressure on medicine companies could drive up the cost of Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) or see companies withdraw some medicines from Australian shelves , experts have warned.

The US president on Monday threatened to force medicine companies to lower their prices in the US, giving them 30 days to cut costs or face more severe action in an executive order.

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Australian property bounce after Labor wins second term, early data shows

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More buyers enter the market as auction clearance rates rose to 70% in the week following the election, figures show

Australia’s housing market has surged in the immediate aftermath of Labor’s emphatic election victory, preliminary data shows, while analysts say an anticipated string of rate cuts may see the trend continue.

Auction clearance rates rose to 70% in the week following the election, according to preliminary Cotality data, from 60% in the middle of last month. An auction clearance rate of 70% or above typically indicates sellers are in control of the market.

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Guardian Essential poll: PM’s approval rating surges amid calls to hurry upd housing and health reform

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More than 40% of voters say Labor’s large majority should encourage Anthony Albanese to get more ambitious with policies in key areas

Anthony Albanese’s personal approval rating has spiked off the back of his election win, as an overwhelming majority of Australians call on Labor to rapidly initiate health, housing and energy reform.

More than 40% of voters say Labor’s large parliamentary majority should encourage Albanese to set out an even more ambitious schedule of reform, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll. The prime minister’s popularity has risen to its highest level for a year, the poll showed.

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‘A horror movie’: sharks and octopuses among 200 species killed by toxic algae off South Australia

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Karenia mikimotoi algae can suffocate fish, cause haemorrhaging and act as a neurotoxin, one expert says

More than 200 marine species, including deepwater sharks, leafy sea dragons and octopuses, have been killed by a toxic algal bloom that has been affecting South Australia’s coastline since March.

Nearly half (47%) of the dead species were ray-finned fish and a quarter (26%) were sharks and rays, according to OzFish analysis of 1,400 citizen scientist reports.

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Australia news live: Anthony Albanese says Tanya Plibersek ‘very positive’ about new role after being shifted from environment portfolio

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Follow today’s news live

Labor’s Tanya Plibersek has avoided comment about her ministerial desires or expectations, offering little other than general remarks when pressed this morning on the issue of the forthcoming cabinet announcement from Anthony Albanese.

Plibersek, who previously held the environment portfolio, told Sunrise this morning that cabinet decisions were “completely a matter for the prime minister” and that she was just “very grateful” to be on the front bench, and to have won the election, and to get to do “a good job for the government and for the people of Australia” again … and, well, you get the idea.

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Anthony Albanese reveals new cabinet with Tanya Plibersek named as minister for social services

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PM has named his new frontbench, including Michelle Rowland as the new attorney-general, after a factional brawl over positions

Tanya Plibersek has been named the minister for social services as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, revealed his new frontbench after Labor’s emphatic election victory.

The biggest changes in the new cabinet include Michelle Rowland, as the new attorney-general; health minister Mark Butler getting the NDIS added to his portfolio; Amanda Rishworth being named the new employment and workplace relations minister; Anika Wells being promoted to the communications portfolio; and Murray Watt taking on the environment portfolio.

Richard Marles – deputy prime minister, minister for defence

Penny Wong – minister for foreign affairs

Jim Chalmers – treasurer

Katy Gallagher – minister for finance, minister for the public service, minister for women, minister for government services

Don Farrell – minister for trade and tourism, special minister of state

Tony Burke – minister for home affairs, minister for immigration and citizenship, minister for cybersecurity, minister for the arts

Mark Butler – minister for health and ageing, minister for disability and the national disability insurance scheme

Chris Bowen – minister for climate change and energy

Catherine King – minister for infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government

Amanda Rishworth – minister for employment and workplace relations.

Jason Clare – minister for education

Michelle Rowland - attorney general.

Tanya Plibersek – minister for social services.

Julie Collins – minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry

Clare O’Neil – minister for housing, minister for homelessness and minister for cities

Madeleine King – minister for resources, minister for northern Australia

Murray Watt – minister for the environment and water

Malarndirri McCarthy – minister for Indigenous Australians

Anika Wells – minister for communications, minister for sport

Pat Conroy – minister for defence industry, minister for Pacific Island affairs

Anne Aly – minister for small business, minister for international development, minister for multicultural affairs

Tim Ayres – minister for industry and innovation, minister for science

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Nurse who treated Joel Cauchi for schizophrenia threw up when told about Bondi Junction stabbings, inquest hears

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Health worker describes 40-year-old as ‘compliant’ and ‘diligent’ patient but recalls 2020 phone call and a possible ‘warning sign’ of mental health relapse

A nurse at the Queensland medical practice where Joel Cauchi was treated for schizophrenia remembers him as a “compliant” and “diligent” patient, telling an inquest she vomited when she learned he had fatally stabbed six people at a Sydney shopping centre.

Cauchi, 40, killed Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Faraz Tahir, 30, and injured 10 others at Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April last year before he was shot and killed by police inspector Amy Scott.

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Federal election results: Monique Ryan wins Kooyong while Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian takes Bradfield

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Amelia Hamer could only secure small primary vote swing towards Liberals in Kooyong, while Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown holds inner-Brisbane seat of Ryan

The independent MP Monique Ryan has won Kooyong in Melbourne, holding off her Liberal challenger, but Nicolette Boele, another Climate 200-backed candidate, is expected to fall short on Sydney’s north shore.

The ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, on Monday projected that Ryan would maintain her slim lead in the Melbourne seat, where she led by about 700 votes with a few thousand left to count.

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