Category Archives: Victoria

Victoria to introduce Australia’s strictest poker machine rules, with $1,000 limit to be slashed by 90%

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Andrews-era reforms to be introduced in state parliament on Tuesday will cap load-up to $100, $400 less than in New South Wales


The Victorian government will use the final sitting week of the year to introduce to parliament long-awaited gambling reforms, which will slash the maximum amount punters can put into poker machines at a time from $1,000 to $100.

The gaming minister, Melissa Horne, will on Tuesday introduce the gambling legislation amendment (precommitment and carded play) bill 2024 to parliament, about 16 months after the former premier Daniel Andrews announced the changes.

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Australian student injured in West Bank says life ‘flipped upside down’ as Palestinian community demands answers

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Ranem Abu Izneid, injured by shrapnel in Israeli-occupied Abu Dis, says ‘there is no hope for me to regain my vision’

An Australian dentistry student has lost her vision after being struck by shrapnel in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, sparking outrage in the Australian Palestinian community.

Ranem Abu Izneid, 20, was studying in her room on 15 November at Al Quds University in Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem, when she heard bombs and soldiers shouting.

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Australian police offer to help Laos investigation into suspected methanol deaths as Melbourne teenagers mourned

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Prime minister pays tribute to Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles while families vow to turn tragedy into ‘mission for change’

Australian federal police have offered to help the Laos investigation into multiple deaths linked to a suspected mass methanol poisoning event.

Melburnians Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, were among six foreign tourists to die.

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Musk argues social media bill may not be lawful – as it happened

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Does the delay on gambling ad restrictions have anything to do with the demands of lobbyists?

Clare O’Neil said it wasn’t about lobbying, but “about making sure that we get this right”.

And the minister has pointed to previous attempts to scale back gambling advertising that have actually resulted in more gambling advertising. This is a delicate area, and we’ve got to get the balance right, and that’s what the minister is seeking to do.

These complicated matters, they just are. You know, if this was a really simple problem to fix, then it would have been fixed a long time ago.

I would say our government deserves credit for stepping up and saying we’re going to take action on this, and the minister [Michelle Rowland] is doing what is appropriate, which is diligently working through what the proposals will look like.

The minister is working with people, experts, stakeholders, others who will be affected by this legislation, and the government has said will come forward with … proposals early next year.

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Parents of teenagers who died in suspected Laos methanol poisoning hope deaths ‘not in vain’

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Bianca Jones’s father urged Laos government to investigate deaths to the ‘fullest’ and ensure it could not happen again

Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones’s devastated families have pleaded with Laos authorities to get to the bottom of a mass methanol poisoning tragedy.

The Australians, both 19, are among six foreign tourists who have died from a suspected methanol poisoning event in Laos.

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Spiky blue devils and chocolate lilies: Victorian grassland bursts with wildflowers after ecological ‘reset’

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Careful management including weed control and a burn laid the groundwork for floral abundance in Boorhaman reserve

Thousands of native daisies, aromatic lilies, milkmaids, billy buttons and rare orchids have blossomed in a pocket of north-east Victorian grassland in one of the best wildflower displays in years.

Glen Johnson, an ecologist at Wild Research, said Boorhaman reserve, located north of Wangaratta, was “an amazingly diverse environment from the knees down”.

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Teammates tie ribbons as community mourns Melbourne teens after suspected methanol poisoning

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Players heard news of Holly Bowles’ death as they gathered to remember her friend Bianca Jones, Beaumaris Football Club says

Tributes have continued to flow for two Melbourne teenagers who died while holidaying in southeast Asia, after the death toll from a suspected methanol poisoning in Laos rose to six.

Holly Bowles, 19, died on Friday in a Bangkok hospital, one day after her best friend, Bianca Jones, also 19, died in another Thai hospital.

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Extreme fire danger warnings for Victoria as heatwave sweeps through south-east Australia

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Cool change expected to push through state late on Saturday, bringing intense rain and thunderstorms across the wider region into next week

Extreme fire danger alerts are in place in parts of Victoria, as swathes of south-east Australia continue to swelter through a heatwave sweeping across the region.

However, the weather system driving the warm conditions is expected to bring a cool change by late on Saturday for much of Victoria, before it triggers intense rain and thunderstorms by the end of the weekend and into the middle of next week.

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Burnayi Lurnayi: Bendigo development aims to provide safe homes for Aboriginal women

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Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation says the development will help Indigenous women stay in the increasingly unaffordable regional city

Traditional owners have partnered with community housing providers in central Victoria to build a new housing project aimed at addressing the high rates of homelessness faced by Aboriginal women.

The development, named Burnayi Lurnayi, meaning “young women” in Dja Dja Wurrung language, is being built in the Bendigo suburb of Flora Hill, in a partnership between the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (Djarra) and community housing organisation YWCA.

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Greens say leaked pokies reform report ‘a huge concern’ – as it happened

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Heatwave conditions are building over parts of Victoria and New South Wales today.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, much of Victoria will experience heatwave conditions, with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 30s.

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Melbourne teen Bianca Jones dies in hospital after methanol poisoning in Laos

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A New Zealand citizen is also ill, while a US citizen has died following a suspected mass poisoning event in the town of Vang Vieng

Melbourne teen Bianca Jones has died from methanol poisoning in a Thai hospital, a week after the Melbourne teen and her best friend fell ill while travelling in neighbouring Laos.

Anthony Albanese confirmed the 19-year-old’s death on Thursday, after her parents travelled to Thailand to be with her.

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Attempt to prevent NSW climate protest overturned – as it happened

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New South Wales MPs condemned for ‘part-time’ parliamentary year

Scores of NSW MPs will earn the equivalent of more than $10,000 per sitting week in 2025 after a bid to increase the year’s 16-week calendar was rejected, AAP reports.

To do this, government MPs have to turn up to parliament and discuss matters. Voters won’t be happy that government MPs would prefer to hide in their electorate offices rather than turning up to parliament, where they face scrutiny.

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Final hours of missing Melbourne woman Isla Bell’s life captured by CCTV, police allege

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Nineteen-year-old last seen leaving her Brunswick home in October and remains yet to be formally identified have been found in Dandenong

The final hours of missing teen Isla Bell’s life have been captured on CCTV in the Melbourne apartment building of her alleged killer, according to court documents.

The documents released by the court on Wednesday afternoon detail how the 19-year-old allegedly ended up at Marat Ganiev’s St Kilda East apartment on 7 October.

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Police suspect arson behind overnight fire that destroyed Melbourne’s Lux nightclub

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About 50 firefighters and 15 fire trucks called to battle blaze at venue in Chapel Street, South Yarra

A Melbourne nightclub has been razed after a suspicious fire broke out in the middle of the night.

Lux nightclub on Chapel Street in South Yarra was engulfed in flames early on Thursday, with about 50 firefighters and 15 fire trucks called to battle the blaze.

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Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly wants powers over schools’ Indigenous history curriculum

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Co-chair says treaty will not outline specific changes to syllabus but is ‘more about saying this is the role that First Peoples will play’

Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly wants decision-making powers over how the state’s Indigenous history is taught in schools but says a treaty will not outline specific changes to the curriculum.

The assembly – the state’s democratically elected Indigenous body – will begin nation-first treaty talks with the Allan government in the coming days. A state-wide treaty – the first of its kind in Australia – will tackle problems affecting First Nations Victorians.

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Victoria to build $370m state-owned solar farm and battery in state’s west

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Jacinta Allan says project will be able to power more than 51,000 homes and include 119MW solar facility and 100MW two-hour battery

The Victorian government will spend $370m to build a massive solar and battery farm able to power more than 50,000 homes, which it says will be the first state government-owned energy project since the electricity grid was privatised in the 1990s.

Jacinta Allan announced the new project in Horsham, in Victoria’s west, which is the second investment made by the government-owned State Electricity Commission.

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Dutton’s position on international student caps ‘utterly reckless’, Giles says – as it happened

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Oxfam reacts to Australia’s Cop29 pledge

Oxfam Australia has welcomed the government’s Cop29 pledge of $50m towards a global loss and damage fund to help the world’s most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown.

If climate change losses and damages are not included in the new global climate finance goal, the new fund for responding to loss and damage risks becoming an empty vessel.

The danger is that developed country governments will prioritise meeting the new and ambitious climate finance goal, and will not prioritise a fund that doesn’t count towards it.

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‘Every parent’s nightmare’: family of Melbourne teen fighting for life after feared methanol poisoning hopes for answers

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Parents ‘want to ensure no other family’ feels same anguish as Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles remain in Thai hospitals

The family of one of two teenagers fighting for life in hospital after a suspected methanol poisoning incident in Laos hope authorities work out exactly what happened “as soon as possible”.

Melbourne friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both aged 19, had been staying at a hostel in Vang Vieng, north of the Laos capital Vientiane, when they fell critically ill last week.

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Australia politics live: Dutton calls Labor’s international student caps bill ‘a dog’s breakfast’; RBA fuels expectations for February interest rates cut

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First investment announced as part of National Reconstruction Fund

The science and industry minister, Ed Husic, was on ABC News Breakfast to discuss the government’s first investment via the National Reconstruction Fund – $40m to a Toowoomba mineral processing factory.

The difference in terms of what the [NRF] does is it provides loans, equity, and guarantees to firms that are [working across] seven priority areas to expand and grow their operations.

Given the sizes of the investments, it does take more time to be able to go through to shape up what the investment will look like, how big it’ll be, over what term, the rate of return – because the other important thing to stress to viewers is – this is not about handing out grants, and certainly not doing it on the basis of political colour-coded spreadsheets as we saw with the last government.

In fact, the social media users were less likely to have a negative attitude towards Jewish and Muslim people, irrespective of where they were on the political spectrum.

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Greg Lynn launches appeal over conviction for murdering camper Carol Clay in Victoria’s high country

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Former Jetstar pilot seeks to overturn conviction and sentence over killing of 73-year-old in the Wonnangatta Valley

A former Jetstar pilot who was convicted of murdering an elderly camper in Victoria’s high country has formally lodged an appeal against his conviction and sentence.

Greg Lynn, 58, was last month sentenced to a minimum of 24 years in prison for the 2020 murder of 73-year-old camper Carol Clay in the Wonnangatta Valley.

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