When Covid hit, people were anxious and frightened. So Catherine Barrett started a page – the Kindness Pandemic – to let them know they weren’t alone
Naomi Colville said panic quickly set in when her neurodivergent daughter didn’t come home after her first day of high school.
“My heart rate went up and I couldn’t breathe,” she recalls.
Continue reading...Shareholder lobby group says parents trust G8 Education to look after children but carers ‘are not supported to look after their own’
Australian employers commonly offer paid parental leave – in addition to the government scheme – to attract and retain workers in a competitive jobs market.
But the largest listed childcare provider in Australia, G8 Education, has no such policy, drawing the attention of activist shareholders who want to pressure it to change.
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Continue reading...‘A lot of parents are feeling really angry and frustrated with the government,’ director of Trans Justice Project says
Thousands of people attended rallies across Australia on Saturday to show solidarity with transgender youth and their families, after the Queensland government’s decision to pause essential healthcare for trans minors.
Twenty rallies were held, including a crowd of 5,000 gathering in both Brisbane and Melbourne, 2500 in Sydney and more than 200 in Cairns, lead organiser Jackie Turner said.
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Continue reading...As humanitarian aid organisation is gutted by Trump administration, Rudd’s office says neither he nor Asia Society received funding
Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador in Washington DC, has hit back at “fake” claims an institute he once led received money from USAid, the US foreign aid agency being targeted by Donald Trump.
The office of Rudd, a former Australian prime minister and current ambassador to the US, has issued a statement seeking to dispel claims circulating online suggesting Rudd and the Asia Society – where he has held various roles since 2015 – benefitted financially from USAid.
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Continue reading...When asked if US will deliver nuclear submarines on time, US defense secretary says ‘we sure hope so’
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said Donald Trump supports the Aukus nuclear submarine deal, after Australia on Friday confirmed its first $800m (US$500m) payment under the defence pact.
“The president is very aware, supportive of Aukus, recognises the importance of the defence industrial base,” Hegseth said in opening remarks at a meeting in Washington with the Australian defence minister, Richard Marles, according to a transcript.
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Continue reading...‘Prolonged period of oppressive heat’ could push temperatures to mid 40C in South Australia, and mid 30C in Melbourne and Hobart
A heatwave marked by high humidity and hot nights will hit southern Australia next week as heat that baked western parts of the country moves east.
The period of intense heat for southern and central Australia is forecast to begin from Monday and last until Thursday, with South Australia, southern parts of the Northern Territory and far western parts of Queensland bearing the brunt.
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Continue reading...Monsoon trough and forecast heavy rain is a hammer blow to residents who have begun returning to their inundated homes
Already sodden parts of north Queensland are set for further heavy rainfall following near-record flooding that isolated towns and required defence force assistance.
Totals in excess of 200mm were possible in areas spanning from Tully to Ayr, south of Townsville, before additional rainfall blankets the region through Monday.
Continue reading...Prosecutor argues Matildas star’s claims about what happened in taxi do not make ‘one blind bit of difference to what this case is about’
Prosecutors in the trial of Australian star Sam Kerr, who called a police officer “stupid and white”, have asked the jury to consider if it would be different had she said “stupid and black”.
The 31-year-old Matildas striker is on trial charged with causing racially aggravated harassment to PC Stephen Lovell during an incident in south-west London in the early hours of 30 January 2023. Kerr denies the charges.
Continue reading...With at most 12 weeks until election day, Dutton and the Coalition have announced few proactive ideas
Caviar and a caravan.
Less than 100 days from an election, that’s what dominated probably the penultimate parliamentary week of this term – questions over finite numbers that both leaders know, but about which they’ve resisted answering questions.
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Continue reading...Reserve Bank statistics show the national credit card debt sits at $17.8bn, up $236m in December 2024 alone
Australians racked up a record $28bn in personal credit card transactions in December, according to new data, leaving many households unable to clear debts and paying extreme interest charges.
The Reserve Bank statistics, analysed by financial comparisons site Canstar, show that Australians are struggling to clear purchases made on credit more than ever before amid persistently high living costs.
Continue reading...Singer biopic wins best film and best actor for motion capture star Jonno Davies, while Trent Dalton adaptation wins in 12 of its 22 nominated categories
The Netflix adaptation of Trent Dalton’s bestseller Boy Swallows Universe has dominated the annual Aacta (Australian Academy of Cinema, Television and the Arts) awards, winning 12 of its record-breaking 22 nominations.
The Aacta president, Russell Crowe, hosted the awards ceremony at Hota (Home of the Arts) on the Gold Coast on Friday, which featured a live performance by Robbie Williams, whose musical biopic, Better Man, collected nine awards on the night.
Continue reading...Flood-hit Townsville, Cardwell and Ingham could face more dangerous flooding. Follow the latest news live
O’Neil makes housing announcements in lead-up to election
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, is in Parramatta today and will travel to Bennelong later, announcing 28 new social and affordable homes
Funding is incredibly important here. I know all of our Australians at home who are watching are really deeply concerned about those devastating differences we see between health outcomes, even important things like infant mortality.
All of the indicators that we use to determine equality of life are very different between our First Nations communities, particularly in remote areas.
I think our prime minister has been quite sober and rational about this, but it is not a reasonable idea, and it’s not shrewd as described by Peter Dutton.
So I think the prime minister has done the right thing. And Peter Dutton is out there playing politics.
But the issue, I think, here that we’re missing is that Gaza has completely been destroyed … It’s devastating to see those kind of images. So there needs to be a rebuild. There needs to be a place that people can come back to in a safe haven for them to call home.
Continue reading...Unlawful termination claim at federal court examining how and why Lattouf was taken off ABC Radio Sydney after posting about Israel-Gaza on social media
Strong exchanges over Lattouf’s views on Israel-Gaza
Oliver-Taylor is being strongly questioned about his understanding of Lattouf’s political views before she was removed from her presenting gig on ABC Radio Sydney.
Certainly at the time that you removed Ms Lattouf, you understood very well her position on the Gaza-Israel war.
I can’t recall what I knew at that exact time. Clearly in the 12 or 14 months that have passed I understand her position. What I was being told was that there was posting and other things going on during that time. I don’t want to sit here and say I knew her exact position. I could guess her position, but I cannot remember at this point in time whether I knew her position.
Continue reading...Clare Nowland’s manslaughter case was ‘unlike any other that I have had to confront’, judge tells Kristian White’s sentencing hearing
Former police officer Kristian White should be imprisoned for fatally shooting a 95-year-old great-grandmother with a Taser and still has not expressed genuine remorse for the crime, the crown prosecutor has told the NSW Supreme Court.
White was convicted of manslaughter last year over the death of Clare Nowland, whom he shot with a Taser at an aged care home in the southern NSW town of Cooma in the early hours of 17 May 2023.
Continue reading...Chris Oliver-Taylor tells unlawful termination hearing of events leading up to decision to sack journalist three days into casual contract
The ABC executive who sacked Antoinette Lattouf for sharing a Human Rights Watch post has conceded he felt “pressure from above” after the then ABC chair, Ita Buttrose, sent him all the complaints she was receiving.
Under cross-examination in the federal court which is hearing Lattouf’s unlawful termination claim, the outgoing ABC content chief, Chris Oliver-Taylor, said there was a “strong view” from colleagues about “having someone who has published strong views, either way, on air”.
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Continue reading...AFP also allege man used social media to contact Victorian state politician
A Victorian man has been charged in connection with alleged death threats and antisemitic comments against a federal politician in the latest incident investigated by a special police taskforce.
The Australian federal police confirmed on Friday a 33-year-old Reservoir man was charged with four counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence and one count of using a carriage service to threaten to kill.
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Continue reading...Union says viral email stuff-up downplaying junior doctors’ concerns has become a focal point for what it labels ‘toxic’ and ‘hazardous’ workplace conditions
If you were to walk into a New South Wales hospital over the past week, you might have seen doctors bringing marshmallows to work, or perhaps cartoon images of the anthropomorphised gelatinous sweet with a stethoscope and white lab coat upon their break-room walls.
Thousands of doctors across the state have embraced calling themselves “clinical marshmellows [sic]” after a medical administration manager at the Hunter New England local health district called junior doctors the moniker in an email stuff-up.
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Continue reading...A man in the city’s west spotted six snakes in a mulch pile – but the number keeps increasing as females give birth to ‘baby after baby’
A Sydney man has said he was “totally amazed” when snake catchers removed a bumper haul of 102 venomous snakes from a single spot in his backyard.
David Stein called in snake relocators after seeing what he estimated were six red-bellied black snakes on a large mulch pile on his property in the western Sydney suburb of Horsley Park on Friday.
Continue reading...Pair charged with destroying property over attack on Newtown synagogue last month
The two men accused of attempting to light a Newtown synagogue on fire have been refused bail.
Adam Moule, 33, and Leon Sofilas, 37, who are co-accused, appeared via video in Downing Centre local court on Thursday when their individual solicitors made applications for them to be released on bail.
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Continue reading...Public service minister Katy Gallagher says opposition leader’s words are ‘reckless’ and would bring back ‘expensive consultants’ and robodebt
Peter Dutton has yet to reveal any detail about his plan to slash public servant jobs in Canberra under a government he leads, as Labor warns his plan will cut crucial government services and risks another robodebt.
In a rare press conference at Parliament House on Thursday, the opposition leader provided little information on his plans to get the “economy back on track” through slashing government jobs and other “wasteful spending”.
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