Category Archives: Victoria

Teen accused of driving stolen Jeep in fatal Melbourne crash faces court as three males remain on the run

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Boy, 17, charged over driving an allegedly stolen car in a fatal crash that killed a 28-year-old man in Burwood

A teen accused of driving a stolen Jeep that killed another driver was checked on by police hours after the crash and found in bed with a doona pulled up to his chin, police allege.

Police are relying on a pair of white shoes, a phone call and an accusation by a young female co-accused to prove the 17-year-old was behind the wheel during the deadly crash.

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Senator says PM’s office planted seed about crossing floor – as it happened

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Josh Burns says Labor motion to recognise Palestine as part of the peace process is ‘the bare minimum’

Josh Burns finished with:

This motion before the House is the bare minimum. It says that we support the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process. That peace process is something that I hold onto and that I have held onto my entire life.

That peace process says that we are all people, above all, and that there has to be a way through this. There has to be a way through this conflict. I wish that we could pull a lever here in Australia and it would all end today, but we have seen time and time again that that is not the case.

There are so many intractable parts of this conflict. I have a degree in this conflict, and I still don’t quite know how to fix it.

I know that there are players who are desperate to end the peace process and to try and disturb any efforts towards peace. I know that trees take years and years and years to grow and can be cut down in a second, and that is what the Middle East has demonstrated over and over again.

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Victoria police make 2,700 arrests in five-month domestic violence blitz in south-east Melbourne

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Police say 7,500 charges laid, including against a man, 42, who allegedly stabbed a woman and assaulted a teenager in front of two younger children

A man who allegedly stabbed a woman and assaulted a teenager in front of two children was among 2,700 arrests by Victoria police during a five-month blitz targeting family violence offenders in Melbourne’s south-east.

Victoria police on Thursday said 7,500 charges had been laid as a result of the blitz, between January and June of this year.

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Synthetic opioid detected in bodies of four people found dead in Melbourne home

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Police confirm drug’s presence after deaths of boy, 17, and three adults in Broadmeadows last week

A synthetic opioid has been found in the bodies of four people found dead in a Melbourne home last week, police say.

The bodies of the 17-year-old boy, two men aged 32 and 37, and a 42-year-old woman were discovered at the property in Broadmeadows, in Melbourne’s north, in the early hours of 25 June.

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More rain forecast for Sydney and Brisbane while Melbourne set for coldest morning of 2024

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BoM forecasts daily showers to continue along east coast until next week while Melbourne should brace for near freezing weather

Sydney and Brisbane are in for another week of wet weather thanks to a potentially record-breaking high pressure system that on Wednesday could also deliver Melbourne its coldest morning so far this year.

Daily showers are forecast along Australia’s east coast until at least next Wednesday, with the Bureau of Meteorology expecting as much as 60mm of rain in the cities.

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Australia politics live: Labor caucus endorses Payman suspension; Watt says no plan to ban live cattle exports

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PM calls for ‘a long-term solution in a peace process’ between Israel and Palestine. Follow today’s news headlines live

Shorten says he thinks Labor party is trying to give Senator Payman ‘space and time’

Bill Shorten continues:

I see why people feel so strongly. They can feel so strongly about the hostage is not being returned, or the deaths in Gaza. People could feel also very strongly about the near million deaths in Sudan.

I can get these very incredibly strong issues. And if you come from particular communities, they’re even more intense, although that doesn’t need to be the prerequisite.

Before I deny something, what’s your source?

No, I don’t believe that.

… Because I wasn’t there and I don’t believe it. I actually think the prime minister, Senator Wong and the leadership are handling a complicated issue pretty well.

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Humpback whale tangled in 800kg of fishing equipment rescued off Gippsland coast

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Rescue operation run by specialised whale disentanglement crews cut off ropes and buoys to let it to swim freely again

A humpback whale which became tangled in 800kg of fishing equipment has been rescued off the Gippsland coast, almost a week after it was first seen to be in trouble.

The whale was spotted near Loch Sport in Central Gippsland on Sunday 23 June by a commercial helicopter, but then disappeared until Friday when it was seen near Lake Tyers off the south-east coast.

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Melbourne airport staff accused of smuggling drugs for organised crime cartels

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Scores of workers allegedly breached security checks, and air crew accused of stashing illegal products in false-bottom suitcases

Dozens of Melbourne airport staff have been accused of working for organised criminals trying to smuggle drugs into Australia.

Aviation workers were the subject of a Border Force investigation targeting criminals in airport supply chains.

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Eastern Australia to shiver through cold week as snow predicted for ski fields in Victoria and NSW

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Weather bureau says the cold front sweeping from SA to Tasmania will move up into alpine areas to bring much-needed snowfalls

Large parts of Australia will shiver through much of the coming week, with temperatures as much as 4C below average expected in some regions.

The Bureau of Meteorology says ski fields could also expect some much-needed snowfalls in time for school holidays in some of the eastern states.

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Debt collection giant Panthera puts large parts of its business into administration

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A Guardian Australia investigation has revealed Panthera had circumvented blacklisting designed to stop it operating in Victoria

Major private debt collector Panthera Finance has appointed new directors and put parts of the company into administration as it seeks to sell off its scandal-plagued business.

Last month, Guardian Australia revealed Panthera, one of the country’s biggest private debt collection firms, had circumvented a blacklisting designed to stop it from operating in Victoria and continued to strike debt purchase deals within weeks of regulatory warnings.

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Fatima Payman admits she ‘upset a few colleagues’ by crossing the floor – as it happened

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Housing minister Julie Collins is speaking to the ABC RN about Labor’s build-to-rent bill which was knocked back in the Senate yesterday, with the Greens and the Coalition combining to delay it:

What we want to do is get this done. We’ve already been consulting, we announced it in the previous budget. Any delays will actually stop the pipeline of construction and the certainty for the sector.

What we want to do is get more affordable homes and more homes of every type on the ground as quickly as we can.

We’re saying they have to have a minimum of 10% to be eligible for the tax concessions that we’re talking about for each development.

That’s what our consultations and our discussions with the sector have done and, as I said, this is not the only thing we’re doing for affordable homes … My point here is that they continually delay and block housing up every time by coming together and having this unholy alliance between the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate, because they’re more interested in votes than they are about people.

We’re not open to negotiation and we want to get this done.

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Melbourne’s airport rail link hits more turbulence after mediation falters

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Airport operator says it will fight for more costly underground option despite expert report’s findings

The long-promised train to Melbourne airport appears to have hit yet another snag, after the prolonged and bitter standoff between Victoria and the airport that has delayed the line for years intensified, despite government-imposed mediation.

The train project – which would be funded by the federal and state governments – has stalled over the state’s insistence it would only finance a cheaper above-ground train station instead of the costlier underground option demanded by the airport.

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Shorten says NDIS ‘too important for political games’ after bill blocked – as it happened

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Wong rejects Birmingham’s criticism, says US alliance ‘deep and strong’

Asked about her Liberal counterpart Simon Birmingham’s criticism of Anthony Albanese’s phone call with Julian Assange and his claims that the deal to release Assange has “damaged” the US-Australian alliance, Penny Wong says:

That’s not not correct and disappointing that Simon would go to the alliance. He would know that our relationship with the United States is deep and strong.

And that is why we were able to advocate in the way we did. And ultimately, the pathway to resolving this, … had to be through the resolution of the legal process.

Dr Yang remains a priority for our government. We continue to raise his case with the Chinese authorities at all appropriate levels and we will continue to do so. It was obviously raised, as you know, when Premier Li was here.

What I would say is today I am very pleased to see Mr Assange reunited with his family in Australia.

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Australia politics live: Plibersek says protecting koala habitat one of the conditions for approving Rinehart-backed gas project

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The Queensland government plans to establish a new greater glider forest park as part of a $200m plan to reform the state’s timber industry.

The premier, Steven Miles, will today announce he will ban logging in between 50,000 and 60,000 hectares of high value ecosystem within the Eastern Hardwoods region in Wide Bay, north of Brisbane.

In addition, a new park to protect the greater glider will be established in the south-east Queensland bioregion.

The state government will also appoint an advisory group to develop a 30-year plan for the sector. It will include representatives from the timber industry, forestry experts, the conservation sector, First Nations peoples, the Australian Workers’ Union, construction sector and outdoor recreational groups.

Queensland’s timber industry is the backbone of the housing and building sectors.

That’s why I’m doing what matters to support timber workers and the industry to continue building our state, while also increasing our protected area estate.

The terms of reference released today map out our priorities as a government – that is, timber supply security, environmental protections, jobs and diverse employment opportunities.

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Australia politics live: Julian Assange leaves Belmarsh prison after plea deal and will return to Australia, WikiLeaks says

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WikiLeaks X account has tweeted that ‘Julian Assange is free’. Follow today’s news headlines live

‘It’s just a lazy delay’

Bill Shorten says a further delay of the Senate vote on the NDIS bill won’t actually lead to any changes:

There’s no good reason on God’s green earth to have another eight weeks of review, which isn’t actually eight weeks.

There won’t be a whole lot of new submissions come in, there won’t be some brand new arguments not considered.

I’m horrified after 12 months of reviewing the NDIS and then another six months of discussing the review including [in] the last three a Senate committee having public hearings calling for submissions.

The opposition has used words never ever said before by them.

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Police investigate possible drug link after four people found dead in Melbourne home

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Cause of death of two men, a woman and a boy in Broadmeadows yet to be determined, police say

Four people have been found dead in a Melbourne home, including a teenage boy.

Victoria police said the bodies of two men, aged 37 and 32, a woman, 42, and a teenage boy, 17, had been found at a Broadmeadows property early on Tuesday.

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‘Very serious’: gas supplies in southern states under pressure, analysts warn

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‘Threat notice’ flags elevated supply risks, as expert warns problems will get worse without urgent addition of more backup resources

Gas supplies in southern states are likely to remain strained the rest of this winter, and the problems will worsen without the urgent addition of more backup resources, analysts including the market operator say.

Those states, particularly Victoria, have drawn down their gas storage as cold weather increased demand. Gas-fired power generation has also been double that expected on some days amid unusually calm periods, and gas production at Victoria’s Longford plant has dropped because of unscheduled maintenance.

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Victoria to trial pill testing as a ‘commonsense way to save lives’, Jacinta Allan says

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Premier announces state will trial pill testing during summer festival season, saying evidence shows it ‘works’

Victoria will trial pill testing this summer, the premier Jacinta Allan has announced, after a spate of drug overdoses at festivals in the first quarter of 2024.

Allan announced via an Instagram post on Monday night that the move was a “simple and commonsense way to save lives”.

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Victoria’s Landcare groups have 60,000 volunteers – but will there be funds to support them?

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The volunteer environment network says lack of money is stifling the growth of local groups despite an increase in interest on the ground

Lyn Heenan’s involvement with Landcare began almost 40 years ago, when her late father, Paul, joined the new movement in the 1980s to get rid of rabbits that had been eating their way through the Pyrenees region in western Victoria.

It was shortly after then conservation minister Joan Kirner had launched the initiative alongside the Victorian Farmers Federation at the tiny locality of Winjallock in 1986.

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Coldest start to winter in decades in some areas with polar air mass predicted across Australia next week

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Many parts of Victoria, NSW and Queensland have shivered through temperatures between 2C and 5C below average, the BoM says

It has been the coldest start to winter in decades for parts of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and temperatures are expected to remain cooler with a polar air mass predicted to sweep through the entire country in the coming week.

Dean Narramore, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said many parts of south-eastern Australia experienced temperatures in the past week between 2C and 5C below average for winter.

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