Category Archives: Victoria

Second man charged over attempted arson of Sydney synagogue – as it happened

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The anti-fracking group Lock the Gate Alliance has launched a legal challenge to a Northern Territory government decision to approve another gas exploration project in the Beetaloo basin.

The case in the territory’s civil and administrative tribunal is challenging the merits of the government’s approval of the environment management plan for Empire Energy’s “Larrimah” exploration project.

Our robust regulation of the onshore petroleum industry is informed by the best available science. As the project is before the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, it would be premature to make any further comment on the matter.

For too long, vice-chancellors and senior executives have escaped any real accountability for some of the terrible decisions that have damaged our public universities. An inquiry would be a golden opportunity to get to the bottom of what’s allowing the wage theft epidemic, rampant casualisation and a raft of other serious problems to flourish in our sector.

This is the path to lasting reform that will ensure staff can deliver the world-class teaching and research our students and community deserve.

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Teen fighting for life and another injured after Melbourne street fight shooting

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Detectives believe the boys, aged 15 and 17, were shot in a targeted attack during a Collingwood brawl involving up to 50 youths

Two teens are lucky to be alive after a targeted shooting during a street fight that embroiled dozens of youths, police say.

A 17-year-old boy is fighting for his life in hospital while a 15-year-old has been hospitalised with serious injuries after both were found with gun shot wounds on Vere Street in Collingwood, inner Melbourne, about 1am on Friday.

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Victoria and South Australian schools to be fully funded after securing landmark federal government agreement

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But Queensland and New South Wales still hold out on agreement that will see southern states get a 5% boost in commonwealth public school funding

Victoria and South Australia have secured a landmark 5% increase in commonwealth public school funding meaning they will be fully funded by 2034, leaving just Queensland and New South Wales holding out on signing up to the historic education agreement.

The move is a major win for the states and for Labor ahead of the federal election, bringing an end to more than six months of disputes over who will pay to deliver on fully funding public education for the first time.

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Rudd and Keating statues decapitated in mass vandalism attack on 20 prime ministers’ busts

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Early investigations point towards four people and a white ute spotted around Ballarat Botanical Gardens on Thursday morning

Vandals have cut off the heads of the statues of Kevin Rudd and Paul Keating in Ballarat, and damaged 18 others.

A total of 20 busts on Prime Ministers Avenue in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens in Victoria were attacked between 2am and 5am on Thursday. The avenue features busts of Australia’s first 29 prime ministers.

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Australia news live: Bruce Lehrmann seeks judge-only trial on rape charges; off-duty police officer in hospital after Sydney attack

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Asked about the future of the weekly pro-Palestinian protests across Australia, Malarndirri McCarthy said as long as they are respectful and peaceful, “they are part of our democratic way”.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? I mean, we are a democracy. Whatever the rally or protest is, we enable that. We allow that so long as it’s peaceful and respectful.

Police across every jurisdiction in the country know they have to be prepared. Rally organisers, whoever they may be, also know they need to consult to be able to have access to those streets. Come on, let’s be mindful that these rallies, so long as they are held in a respectful manner, in a peaceful manner, they are part of our democratic way.

I think when I look at the polls, Karl – and I think I’ve talked to you about this over the years, you know, when we went into the 2019 election – every poll said we were going to win. The reality is, you have to work every single day right up – and the only poll that does really count, and I believe that especially after that loss, is the one on election day.

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Housing completions fall behind accord target – as it happened

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Watt defends government response to antisemitism as ‘very strong’

Asked if the federal government has been going enough to combat antisemitism, Murray Watt said it had responded “very strongly here”.

Unfortunately, there are some people in the community who are engaging is disgusting behaviour and the AFP and state police have demonstrated they will be caught and go to jail, which is where they belong.

I [will] leave it to the AFP to confirm some of the details about this, but I think this demonstrates exactly how far our police authorities are going to try to crack down on the shocking behaviour …

[The number of arrests made] sends a really clear message from the whole community that there is no tolerance that this kind of hate, and you will be caught if you do these kind of disgusting attacks.

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Australia news live: second child dies after Tasmania house fire; mental health ward closures begin in NSW after mass resignation of psychiatrists

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The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says it was a “privilege and honour” to be the first Australian foreign minister to “be invited and to attend an inauguration on behalf of our country”.

She spoke with the Today show from Washington DC, where she attended Donald Trump’s inauguration.

My message here in Washington to those I meet is to point out the reality of the economic relationship between Australia and the United States, that there is a surplus in America’s favour. There has been for decades. In fact, it’s about two to one. And of those exports from Australia that come here, about half of them go into the US production.

As we know, the Wall Street Journal is obviously reporting, now [Trump is] going to review the trade situation and then look at what sort of tariff changes need to be made.

We need to make sure that our foreign affairs ministry, our trade minister and our ambassador are deeply engaged in that review process to make sure our national interest is upheld.

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Motorists able to lock in low petrol prices for 24 hours under Victoria’s new ‘fair fuel’ plan

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State government will force 1,500 petrol stations to report fuel prices a day in advance under ‘cost-of-living shake-up’

Petrol stations in Victoria will be forced to publicly report their fuel prices a day before they come into effect, with motorists then able to lock them in for 24 hours, under a “cost-of-living shake-up” announced by the state government.

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, on Monday announced her “fair fuel-price plan” in Werribee, in Melbourne’s outer west, ahead of a crucial byelection in the area next month.

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Victorian RSL clubs spent only 1.5% of pokies revenue on veteran welfare, study finds

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Financial analysis shows clubs took $2.1bn in gambling revenue over 10-year period but spent 12 times more on business expenses than support programs

Only 1.5% of the money lost by gamblers in poker machines in Victorian RSLs over several years went towards improving veteran welfare, new research shows.

The study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, analysed records submitted to the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission over a 10-year period.

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Tributes for ‘star’ Melbourne burlesque performer killed in arson attack

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Police believe 27-year-old Katie Tangey’s death was a case of mistaken identity as friends rally to raise funds for her family

A popular performer, killed by fire in what police say is a case of mistaken identity, has been remembered as “an icon” as friends rally to raise funds for her heartbroken family.

Katie Tangey, 27, died after becoming trapped while house-sitting her brother’s three-storey townhouse in Truganina, Melbourne’s west, on Thursday morning.

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Melbourne brawl that left two men dead began with birthday party argument, police say

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Neighbours told to stay inside as police seek information on stabbing deaths of two men from same family

Two men died in a brawl at a birthday party on that spilled on to the streets in Melbourne’s outer south-eastern suburbs, police say.

Detectives said the two men, aged 23 and 54, who were from the same family, were involved in a brawl involving about 20 people. Police alleged some left the scene before police arrived.

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Australia news live: relief for Sydney morning commuters as train unions ordered to halt action; man charged over death threats to Jewish group

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First charge by AFP’s Special Operation Avalite established in December. Follow today’s news headlines live

Richard Marles will become the first minister to visit Kiribati in almost two years, AAP reports.

The deputy prime minister and defence minister is travelling to Kiribati for high-level talks with the nation’s re-elected government, which closed its country’s borders in 2024 while national elections were held.

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New weather system to strike eastern Australia with strong winds and rain

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Eastern NSW, particularly northern rivers, and Gold Coast at high risk for severe thunderstorms and winds on Thursday, BoM forecasts

Persistent rain and strong winds will sweep across New South Wales into the weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology predicts, with parts of Victoria and south-east Queensland also likely to be affected.

Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said Sydney’s weather could shift from storms to a “dreary” mix of wind, rain and cloud. It would be “persistently windy” and “quite chilly”, he said.

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Australia news live: delays up to 70 minutes on Sydney trains as industrial action begins; Hume says Coalition would cut ‘bloated bureaucracy’

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‘Passengers should expect delays, service cancellations and large service gaps’ across Sydney today, NSW TrainLink warns. Follow today’s news live

Wong ‘absolutely confident’ government can work with Trump as US president

Moving to another topic, Penny Wong was asked about her invite to Donald Trump’s inauguration in the US, and responded:

Donald Trump has been elected President of the United States, and I’m honoured, on behalf of the country, to have been invited to his inauguration.

This includes humane treatment and the right to a fair trial. So that is their obligation, [and] we will look at the facts when they have been ascertained.

But I want to be clear, all options are on the table. Those options include expelling the ambassador and recalling Australia’s ambassador in Russia … I need, as the foreign minister, to identify and ascertain the facts beforehand.

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Australia news live: SpaceX debris disrupts Qantas flights from Sydney to South Africa

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Rowland reacts to number of women preselected by Liberal party to replace retiring MPs

Michelle Rowland was also asked about the fact just one woman has been preselected to replace eight Liberal MPs who are retiring at the next election. Is she disappointed by this?

Clearly, Peter Dutton talks a big game when it comes to these issues, but the reality is borne out by the fact that they continue to overlook women for public office … For my mind, that says everything about Peter Dutton being stuck in the past, just as he’s stuck in the past around the national broadband network, his response to this announcement is to call it a joke, which is an insult to regional communities.

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Mornington Peninsula house falls down cliff in landslide

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One person taken to Frankston hospital after home collapses at Penny Lane in McCrae south-east of Melbourne

A house on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has collapsed down a cliff in a landslide on Tuesday morning, with one person taken to hospital.

The house on Penny Lane in McCrae collapsed shortly before 9am on Tuesday.

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Calls to halt kangaroo culling in Victoria’s Grampians after bushfires

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Australian mainland states permit killing of nearly 5 million annually as part of industry supplying meat and leather products

Wildlife advocates are calling for a halt to the commercial harvesting of kangaroos in Victoria’s Grampians region after bushfires there.

Wildlife Victoria warned of “long-term impacts” on native plants and animals due to the fires, which burned through 76,000 hectares of national park and farmland, and called for a stop to the controversial practice until the impact on kangaroo populations could be fully assessed.

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Stormy, hot weather forecast for most of Australia with flash flooding risk in NSW and Queensland

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BoM says expected storms in Brisbane and severe thunderstorms and heavy rain in Sydney due to lingering north-easterly winds

A stormy and hot weekend is in store for most of Australia with tempestuous weather continuing in the north and along the east coast, while some parts of the country swelter through dry conditions and severe heatwaves.

Central and south-east Queenslanders were warned that widespread severe thunderstorms on Saturday may bring large hail, damaging winds and heavy rainfall with the threat of flash flooding, while temperatures were expected to climb into the mid-40s in the west of the state.

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Average renter would take 8.3 years to save enough for a house deposit, new Victorian analysis shows

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Exclusive: PBO report based on wage growth, house prices and rent rises says nearly a decade needed if 20% of gross income is put aside

It could take almost a decade for the average Victorian renter who puts aside 20% of their gross income to save enough money for a home deposit, according to analysis from the state’s independent Parliamentary Budget Office.

But if rents were to increase in line at the historically high rate seen in 2022 and 2023, the time needed to save for a deposit could blow out to more than 65 years.

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Mornington Peninsula beach box’s $910,000 to $1m listing higher than median Melbourne home

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High asking price for boat shed a contrast to struggling housing market in the region, expert says

A beach box on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has gone on the market with an asking price of up to $1m – higher than the median value of a home in Melbourne.

The owners of Beach Box 28, on Shelley beach in Portsea, are selling the blue boat shed with a price guide of $910,000 to $1m.

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