Category Archives: Victoria

PM promises ‘Labor party budget through and through’ – as it happened

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More details on government’s plan to cap international student numbers

The government has released a little more information on its plan to cap international students in a bid to ease housing shortages and clamp down on sub-standard education providers and agents. It will introduce legislation next week which will:

Prevent education providers from owning education agent businesses.

Pause applications for registration from new international education providers and of new courses from existing providers for periods of up to 12 months.

Require new providers seeking registration to demonstrate a track record of quality education delivery to domestic students before they are allowed to recruit international students.

Cancel dormant provider registrations to prevent them being used as a market entry tool by unscrupulous actors.

Prevent providers under serious regulatory investigation from recruiting new international students.

Improve the sharing of data relating to education agents.

[The Coalition will announce its] energy policy not at the time of the media’s choosing or at a time of the government’s choosing but a time of the Coalition’s choosing.

But it will be very clear in advance of the next election the way we want to go about opening up a new energy source for Australia. That will deliver emissions free energy and lower energy prices by increasing the mix of types of energy over the long term.

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Accused Islamic State terrorist Neil Prakash ‘enticed’ by sermon at Melbourne mosque, court told

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Notorious alleged jihadi changed from a peaceful convert after being influenced by an ‘inflammatory’ brand of Islam, a magistrate has heard

An accused Australian jihadi was “enticed” by a radical Islam sermon delivered on the day of his conversion and was influenced by members of the mosque, a court has been told.

Once branded Australia’s most-wanted alleged terrorist, Neil Christopher Prakash faced Melbourne magistrates court on Monday accused of six terrorism-related offences.

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Aurora australis offers second chance of ‘bloody awesome’ southern lights display on Sunday

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Solar storm effects delight stargazers in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia but most in NSW miss out

Australians should have a second chance to see the aurora australis on Sunday night, experts say, after a Saturday southern lights display so spectacular it left at least one astronomer in tears.

Social media users posted pictures of brightly coloured skies in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and around the world.

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So scarlet it was maroon: five places to watch Australia’s autumn leaves turn

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Towns across the country are putting on a show as the cold nights draw in. We’ve picked five spots from Queensland to Gippsland to take it in

Autumn is arguably the most beguiling time of year. It’s not too hot, not too cold, and regional towns are basked in alluring shades of auburn, burgundy and orange.

But to experience the season in all its glory, you have to know where to go.

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Aurora australis: spectacular southern lights might be seen as far north as Queensland after ‘extreme’ solar storm

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Social media users post pictures of skies lit up around the country while the Bureau of Meteorology warns of solar storm’s impacts

Aurora australis has lit up skies across southern Australia after an “extreme” geomagnetic solar storm.

Social media users in posted pictures of brightly coloured skies in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and across the Tasman in New Zealand.

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Strobe lights and black outs: Australian power companies seek to reduce bat electrocutions

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Loss of habitat and food sources driving fruit bats closer to urban centres, leading to bat deaths, power outages

It’s an increasingly frequent occurrence on Australia’s east coast – a fruit bat foraging for food lands on a power line to rest.

The flying fox (as it’s also known), spreading its wings before taking flight, touches a second power line and is electrocuted.

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Trial of pilot Greg Lynn begins over alleged murders of Victorian campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay

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Lawyers to open their case after Lynn, 57, pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill and Carol Clay

Prosecutors will outline their case against an airline captain accused of the double murder of Russell Hill and Carol Clay at a campsite in Victoria’s alpine region.

Greg Lynn, 57, pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and a jury has been empanelled in Melbourne’s supreme court ahead of trial openings on Friday.

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Victorian woman felt her voice was taken away before mother allegedly forced her to marry older man, court told

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Sakina Muhammad Jan accused of forcing daughter Ruqia Haidari to marry ‘someone she did not know’

A young woman felt like her voice and future were being taken away when her mother allegedly coerced her into marrying an older man from another state, a jury has been told.

Prosecutors have accused Sakina Muhammad Jan, from Victoria’s north, of forcing her 20-year-old daughter into marrying a man from Western Australia in 2019.

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Australia news live: Michele Bullock says data ‘pretty bumpy’ but RBA vigilant about continued high inflation risk

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The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says the prime minister needs to “pick the phone up” and speak directly to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, after the Australian government accused a Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares close to an Australian helicopter in international waters.

The defence minister, Richard Marles, yesterday branded the incident as “unacceptable” and said the Australian pilot had to take evasive action to avoid the flares. You can read all the details below:

I think the prime minister needs to pick the phone up, frankly, and speak to the Chinese president … and express our deep concern, because at some stage, there’s going to be a miscalculation and an Australian defence force member is going to lose their life.

And that is a tragic circumstance that has to be avoided at all costs, but there will be a miscalculation by somebody who’s flying that jet or somebody who’s on the deck of a Chinese naval ship, something will happen.

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Synergy360 boss drops defamation case against Nine – as it happened

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‘Lower the temperature’ on protests at university campuses, education minister says

The education minister was also asked about the pro-Palestine encampments taking place across Australian universities, and whether they should be allowed to continue for as long as students are willing to man them.

There’s always going to be protests in a democracy, that’s part of being a democracy. What there’s no place for is hate or violence or prejudice or discrimination and certainly no place [for] antisemitism or Islamophobia – whether it’s on our university campuses or anywhere else in the country.

What I’d say is that we’ve just got to lower the temperature. You know, what’s happening on the other side of the world is trying to pull our country apart. We’ve got to work together – whether it’s politicians or religious leaders or community leaders, whether it’s the media, or student representatives – to work to keep our country together, not let it get pulled apart.

There’ll be a lot of people who will still be able to work at the same time as they’re doing [placements]. But there are people who can’t [and] this will provide that bit of extra help to pay the bills, put food on the table, pay for transport, sometimes the relocation costs that come with prac.

The commonwealth government hasn’t done this before. This is the first time that this has happened. It’s happened in the in response to calls from students – both teaching students and nursing students and social work students – across the country, and it’s come out of the work for the universities accord team that heard loud and clear that there is placement poverty in this country.

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If Jacinta Allan isn’t Daniel Andrews, her first budget should show Victorians exactly who she is

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A huge infrastructure agenda helped win Andrews three elections but the priority now for the state – and new premier – is the housing crisis

In the seven months since Jacinta Allan took over as Victoria’s premier, she’s worked to shirk off the impression she’s Daniel Andrews’ apprentice and differentiated herself from the former leader.

By all accounts, Allan has moved away from the centralised model that characterised the Andrews leadership and drew criticism from integrity agencies. Her cabinet meetings are said to be more consultative and her ministers have been given autonomy over their portfolios and, as a result, more visibility in the media.

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Bonza urged to pay April wages; data breach exposes family violence, sexual assault data – as it happened

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PM responds to reports regional women camping out, sleeping in cars

Anthony Albanese has commented on reports that carparks in regional areas are being opened for women to sleep in tents or their cars.

We have allocated funding through our Housing Australia Future Fund for emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence. I will be in discussions with the states and territories as well about what more can be done.

We know that the circumstances where a woman is escaping a violent situation [and] has to sleep in her car or surf on a couch of a friend and rotate around, we hear stories about that as well, is unacceptable in 2024. We need to do better. There’s no question about that.

We need to look at bail laws. More importantly, we actually need to look at how we can keep women, or victims and children in the home environment and force the perpetrator to leave. We have a program in NSW called the Staying Home: Leave Violence program. There are over 138 LGAs in this state at the moment, only 91 have access to that program, even though we know it is incredibly effective. We need programs like that funded immediately, not just across NSW but across the country.

I am optimistic about who we are as a country and our capacity to take responsibility for ourselves. The time of us to do this is now. We don’t have three months, which is what the government is suggesting, to wait and see what happens next. By then another 23 women will have lost their lives.

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Residents to continue fighting demolition of Melbourne public housing towers despite court setback

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Pledge comes after Victoria’s supreme court dismisses residents’ class action against government, saying it has ‘no real prospect of success’

Victoria’s supreme court has dismissed a class action that was attempting to stop the demolition of Melbourne’s 44 public housing towers, saying it had no real prospect of success.

But the Inner Melbourne Community Legal service, which is leading the case, said it was determined to continue the fight using fresh legal tactics.

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Bonza fleet’s grounding extended – as it happened

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Prime minister says trial ongoing into funding for women escaping violence

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to ABC RN about yesterday’s announcements after national cabinet.

Well, there is already a trial going ahead. We want to make sure that the processes are in place [so] that they will begin within the next financial year as a permanent program, not just offering financial support, but as well as offering support for referral services, risk assessments, safety planning, and other support …

This isn’t something that you solve with a meeting on one day. This is something that governments are determined to take action on. For some of us this is deeply personal, for others, it is incredibly important.

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Majority of university chiefs in Victoria earn over $1m despite budget woes

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Federal government vows crackdown as institutions increased their vice-chancellor’s salaries amid job losses in the sector

More than half of Victoria’s vice chancellors are earning annual salaries of more than $1m, new data reveals, as the federal government vows to to crack down on excessive senior university pay packages.

The 2023 annual reports of Victorian universities, lodged on Wednesday, revealed six of Victoria’s eight vice-chancellors had their salaries boosted last year, including separate rises of more than $50,000.

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Australia news live: Pauline Hanson ‘plainly targeted’ Greens senator with well-known racist phrase, court told

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Final submissions begin in racial discrimination case brought by Mehreen Faruqi against Hanson. Follow the today’s news live

As we flagged earlier, the treasurer Jim Chalmers will today announce foreign investment changes, with approvals to be made quicker and greater scrutiny to be placed on potential risks.

You can read all the details on this from Peter Hannam below:

Right now, we treat investments from right around the world more or less the same. We want to streamline it for the less-risky investments so we can devote much more time and energy and resources to screening the sorts of investments that we’re seeing in critical industries – like critical minerals, critical infrastructure, critical data, and the like.

This is all about strengthening the foreign investment framework to make sure that investment is in the national interest. We want to maximise the right kind of investment, but we want to minimise risk and that’s what these changes I’ll announce today are all about.

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Victorian premier confronts ‘bloody stains of colonisation’ at historic Indigenous truth-telling inquiry

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Jacinta Allan’s journey to deepen her understanding of injustices is one many Victorians will need to embark on for Yoorrook to succeed

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, entered the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s hearing room on Monday holding a message stick bearing the names of the state’s Indigenous groups who have participated in the truth-telling process.

During a smoking ceremony ahead of the premier’s evidence, Travis Lovett, a deputy commissioner at the truth-telling inquiry and a Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man, presented the premier with the message stick. He implored Allan to carry with her the stories of First Nations people who have put their “heart and soul” into the commission’s work.

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Victorian Greens shape up for housing fight over Labor’s proposed Airbnb levy

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Exclusive: Greens say new figures show government’s 7.5% levy on short-stay rentals won’t help fix the housing crisis

The Greens are setting the stage for a fight with the Victorian government over its proposed Airbnb levy, armed with new figures that show the measure will only make a “marginal” difference to the number of homes freed for renters.

Announced last year as part of the government’s plan to tackle the housing crisis, the 7.5% levy on short-stay properties leased through platforms such as Airbnb and Stayz is expected to be included in the state tax bill, which will be tabled in parliament after next week’s budget.

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Truth-telling ‘critical’ to treaty, Victorian premier says before historic appearance at Indigenous-led inquiry

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Jacinta Allan says failure of voice referendum hardened her resolve to ‘present the facts’ about impacts of colonisation

Ahead of a historic appearance at Victoria’s Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry, the premier, Jacinta Allan, said Australia’s failed voice referendum had strengthened her resolve to help “present the facts” about the state’s history and inequalities faced by the First Nations people.

Allan on Monday will become Australia’s first state leader to provide evidence at an Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry, which has the same powers as a royal commission. The Yoorrook Justice Commission is now holding public hearings investigating land injustice.

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Albanese heckled at Canberra rally to end violence against women – as it happened

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Dai Le says funding for domestic violence prevention more important than a royal commission

Asked about social media platform Twitter and Elon Musk’s claims that efforts to ensure a video of a stabbing of an Assyrian priest be taken down globally would constitute a threat to “free speech”, Dai Le says supports the government’s effort but has concerns about potential overreach:

Honestly, how can we not stop images of violence?

What I think government needs to do is to get the funding and target that to communities. Communities are experiencing high domestic violence. Getting it implemented … ,making sure that we don’t alienate one group from another [is important].

It’s just not something people can take. It is very emotional for people and me as a person who escaped Vietnam and being a child who ran from the war, it’s very traumatic for me and very traumatic for people in my community.

I think that everybody, from my understanding, would like a two-state solution.

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