Category Archives: Victoria

Australian federal election 2019: Tony Abbott concedes defeat to Zali Steggall in Warringah – politics live

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Western Australia seats crucial as Queensland swings to LNP. Follow all the updates and analysis, live

It’s worth noting that the polls have predicted a very different result to what we are seeing now.

The primary vote gap between Labor and the Coalition is a lot bigger than the polls suggested.

For those who missed when I was talking about Dawson a few weeks ago in the campaign, the mood there was that the stories were part of a southern conspiracy to remove George Christensen.

So they fell in behind him.

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‘Suddenly the police came’: 76-year-old climate protester arrested outside Liberal MP’s office

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Caroline Danaher remains unapologetic after being charged with trespassing in front of Sarah Henderson’s office

A 76-year-old woman arrested and charged for trespassing at Liberal MP Sarah Henderson’s office said she’ll be back again to protest against political inaction on climate change, and that “every one in this country should be doing the same to their local representatives”.

Every Friday for the past four months, Caroline Danaher has sat outside Henderson’s office with two deck chairs. In 40C heat or in the rain, her goal is a meeting with Henderson, whose office is in the marginal Victorian seat of Corangamite.

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‘Tinder rapist’ Glenn Hartland sentenced to at least 11 years in jail

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Hartland, 44, admitted raping three women and indecently assaulting a fourth woman

Glenn Hartland seduced women online, romanced them with grand gestures and, when they ended the relationship, he raped them.

The man known as Melbourne’s “Tinder rapist” was on Friday sentenced to 14 years and nine months in jail for attacks on four women he met on the popular dating app.

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Melbourne doctor who called for women to be raped stood down during investigation

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Health district responsible for hospital that employs Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee says it takes ‘professional misconduct’ seriously

The health district responsible for the hospital which employs an emergency doctor who said “some women deserve to be raped” has ordered the doctor be stood down while they investigate.

Earlier in April Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee was suspended by the Tasmanian health practitioners tribunal for six weeks after he admitted to posting a series of sexist and racist remarks online. While Lee previously worked in Tasmania, in 2018 he began work at Box Hill hospital in Victoria as an emergency doctor, and the suspension bars him from working anywhere in Australia.

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Melbourne Chinatown death: mourners hold vigil for Natalina Angok

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Group gathers on steps of Victorian parliament to ‘bear witness’ to Angkok’s life

Mourners held a silent vigil on Friday night for Natalina Angok, the young African-Australian woman found dead in Melbourne’s Chinatown on Wednesday.

A small group gathered on the steps of the Victorian parliament on Spring Street for about an hour on Friday evening, vowing to “gather to bear witness to Natalina Angok’s life”.

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Independent’s day? The ‘orange army’ and its battle for Indi

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Can Cathy McGowan’s anointed successor keep Indi independent or will the Coalition strike back?

With the retirement of Cathy McGowan, the rural Victorian seat of Indi is once more back in play and the group of campaigners who unseated Sophie Mirabella in 2013 are now fighting to keep the seat in independent hands.

Orange spray-painted chairs adorn the verandahs outside homes across the electorate – a symbol of the battle.

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Father and son die after lifesaving boat flips in surf off Victoria’s Great Ocean Road

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Rescue boat crew were trying to help a tourist wading in dangerous waters at the mouth of the Sherbrook River

A Victorian town is in mourning after losing two of its well-regarded surf lifesaving volunteers, a father and son who died trying to rescue a tourist from treacherous swells.

Dairy farmers Ross Powell, 71, and his son Andy Powell, 32, have been remembered as heroes after their rescue boat flipped in two-metre swell on Sunday morning.

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Liberal candidate’s claim of ‘fake’ report prompts release of audio interview

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Guardian stands by report after the candidate for Chisholm, Gladys Liu, said the report was ‘fake’ and ‘wrong’ and she had been ‘misrepresented’

The audio of an 2016 interview with Gladys Liu, now the Liberal candidate for the Melbourne seat of Chisholm, has been released after she questioned the accuracy of comments she made to the writer of a Guardian article.

Liu ran an anti-Labor campaign on WeChat, the most popular Chinese-language social media network, ahead of the 2016 election and in the July 2016 report claimed credit for helping to get then Liberal MP Julia Banks elected to parliament.

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Mental health service should be expanded to an opt-out model, expert says

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Many people receiving compulsory mental health treatment are not even aware the advocacy service exists

An advocacy service for people who have been involuntarily detained in mental health wards should be expanded to an opt-out model so patients do not slip through the cracks, an independent evaluation has found.

The Independent Mental Health Advocacy service (IMHA) was established in 2015 to support people receiving compulsory mental health treatment in Victoria and ensure they are aware of their right to object to treatment.

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Court dismisses $1.8m bullying case brought by man accusing boss of breaking wind

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Victorian court upholds supreme court ruling that even if David Hingst’s allegations were true, flatulence did not necessarily constitute bullying

An Australian appeals court on Friday dismissed a bullying case brought by an engineer who accused his former supervisor of repeatedly breaking wind toward him.

The Victoria state court of appeal upheld a supreme court judge’s ruling that even if engineer David Hingst’s allegations were true, flatulence did not necessarily constitute bullying.

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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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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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Bushwalkers missing for four days in Victorian alps found alive

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Trevor Salvado, 60, and Jacinda Bohan, 58, had not been seen since leaving a caravan park in Bright on Friday morning

A Melbourne couple who went missing while bushwalking in Victoria’s alpine region have been found safe and well.

Trevor Salvado, 60, and Jacinta Bohan, 58, were found by a kayaker just after 11am on Tuesday at Buffalo River.

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Victorian bushfires: 2,000 firefighters battle blazes as third emergency warning issued

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Fire crews rush to build containment lines ahead of cold change expected to bring gusty winds and dry lightning

Firefighters in Victoria are rushing to build containment lines around fires burning east of Melbourne before “gusty and erratic” winds reach the area on Wednesday.

At least nine buildings, including homes, were destroyed in two out of control bushfires at Bunyip and Yinnar South in West Gippsland on Sunday, and an emergency warning was issued for a third near Dargo in the high country in east Gippsland.

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George Pell to be sued over alleged 1970s sexual abuse in Ballarat

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Man was a complainant against disgraced cardinal in a second trial that was abandoned, and says ‘when I was told they had withdrawn the case I felt empty’

A man who says he was molested by George Pell when he was a boy in the 1970s will file a lawsuit against the disgraced cardinal in the supreme court in Melbourne, the Herald Sun reports.

The suit to be lodged on Monday is reported to name Pell, the trustees of Nazareth House, (formerly St Joseph’s), the State of ­Victoria and the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.

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Labor pledges $60m to help victims of domestic violence rebuild their lives

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Bill Shorten says money raised from banking fairness fund will provide tailored support packages for families

“Instead of asking ‘why did she stay’, we need to ask ‘where could she go’.”

Reframing the question of what options victims of family and domestic violence have in deciding to leave is behind Labor’s latest policy announcement which would see $60m committed to a program which helps tailor support packages for families needing to rebuild their lives.

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Victoria bushfires: three homes lost in out-of-control blazes in state’s east

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About 400 firefighters are battling blaze 65km east of Melbourne with hazardous conditions expected to continue on Sunday

At least three homes have been lost to a large fire sparked by lightning in a state forest in Victoria’s east.

Aircraft will be sent up on Sunday morning to work out what types of properties were destroyed by the fires at Bunyip State Park about 65km east of Melbourne.

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Former Melbourne bikie leader Amad Malkoun injured in Athens car blast

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Authorities believe bomb attack might have been carried out by an organised crime gang

The former Melbourne bikie leader Amad “Jay” Malkoun has been seriously injured in an apparent car bomb attack in Athens.

Malkoun, who was previously Victorian head of the Comancheros, was attempting to start his Mercedes outside a gym in the upmarket suburb of Glyfada on Friday when the blast occurred.

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Robert Richter apologises for describing George Pell’s abuse as ‘vanilla sex’

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After a ‘sleepless night reflecting’, barrister says sorry for his ‘terrible choice of phrase’

Robert Richter has apologised for his “terrible choice of phrase” in describing George Pell’s sexual abuse of a 13-year-old choirboy as “vanilla sexual penetration”.

The queen’s counsel has been widely criticised for the remark, which came during a plea hearing for the cardinal who is now behind bars awaiting sentence for orally raping the boy, and molesting him and another 13-year-old after a Sunday mass in 1996.

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