Category Archives: Victoria

Shrinkflation a ‘difficult decision’ for manufacturers, inquiry told – as it happened

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Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who had some colourful moments in his relationship with Donald Trump in his first presidency, is up now being colourful on the ABC. He says the Australian prime minister “has to stand up for Australia and not follow the conventional approach, which is being urged on everyone, which is to suck up to Trump and be utterly deferential:

I had a very successful relationship with Trump because I stood up to him, stood my ground, incurred his wrath, won his respect, and then got very good outcomes for Australia.

He did sort of encourage a mob to try to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power in 2021, on January 6.

The deal that Morrison instigated and Albanese signed up to is a very, very asymmetrical deal. All of the risk was on Australia. We have no agency and no leverage over this, and that’s why I think the most likely outcome is we’ll end up with no submarines, and that will be entirely our own fault because we signed up to a dud deal.

We have been clear, in terms of the Liberal party leadership, that Peter Dutton and the Liberal party have no plans, no intentions, to see any changes to abortion laws, that we respect the states’ rights in that regard, and I am very clear in terms of my respect for women’s reproductive rights.

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Heatwave sweeps across large parts of Australia as bushfire threatens Queensland border town

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Weather warnings across multiple states on Wednesday as Dirranbandi residents told to evacuate

A heat warning is in place for large parts of Queensland on Wednesday with temperatures hitting 40C in parts of the state.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a heatwave warning for much of the state, forecasting severe conditions around north-west and inland areas.

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Morrison and Abbott praise Trump – as it happened

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There was some seriously colourful language in Senate estimates yesterday, but in this case the media regulator found radio hosts’ words were a step too far. Sarah Martin reports on what the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young described as “revolting, sexist, racist, misogynistic, divisive stuff”:

A “dangerous anti-abortion bill” before the Senate should be withdrawn, if the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, wants credibility on women’s healthcare, the minister for women, Katy Gallagher, says.

It is typical of Peter Dutton to view this purely as a matter of winning or losing votes, rather than any genuine commitment to women’s healthcare.

If Peter Dutton wants any credibility on women’s healthcare, he must immediately ensure Senators [Matt] Canavan and [Alex] Antic withdraw their dangerous anti-abortion bill currently before the Senate.

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Community mourns ‘passionate’ young rapper killed in Melbourne as alleged shooter remains on the run

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Friends warned against seeking retribution after man in his 20s dies of gunshot wounds in North Melbourne

Family and friends are grieving the loss of a “talented and sociable” young rapper who died after he was allegedly shot by a man who remains on the run.

The man in his 20s was found with gunshot wounds on Langford Street in North Melbourne about 3.15am on Saturday and died at the scene.

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‘Will haunt me for life’: nurse suspended over Covid lockdown baby shower in Melbourne aged care home before deadly outbreak

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Father-to-be was unaware of planned party at Epping Gardens aged care facility and stayed only five minutes, tribunal hears

An aged care nurse who attended a baby shower at a nursing home during a Covid lockdown has been suspended, telling a tribunal the mistake “will haunt me for the rest of my life”.

Staff at the Epping Gardens aged care held a surprise baby shower in July 2020 for registered nurse Denis Baniqued and his wife, who also worked at the facility.

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Police search for attacker after man shot dead in busy nightlife area in Melbourne

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Victoria police say a man was found with fatal gunshot wound on Langford Street in North Melbourne at about 3.15am

A large-scale homicide investigation is under way after a man was fatally shot, triggering “horribly emotional” scenes in a busy nightlife area in inner Melbourne on Saturday morning.

Victoria police said emergency services were called to Langford Street in North Melbourne at about 3.15am after a man was found with a gunshot wound.

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Australia news live: PwC reveals it sacked eight staff over data breaches; Perth man dies after being taken to police watch house

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Follow today’s news headlines live

Court to rule in Pauline Hanson-Mehreen Faruqi case

A federal court judge is ready to rule on whether Pauline Hanson made a racial slur when she told Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi to go back to Pakistan.

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Ellie Price murder: anguished mother blasts sentence that could see ‘vicious’ killer Ricardo Barbaro released in 17 years

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Barbaro, 38, killed Ellie Price, 26, in her South Melbourne home in a stabbing attack a judge described as senseless and cruel

A killer who stabbed his defenceless girlfriend to death in a vicious and senseless attack should have been jailed for life, his victim’s mother says.

Ricardo Barbaro, 38, will instead be eligible for parole in 17 years. A judge sentenced him on Friday after he was found guilty of murdering Ellie Price at her South Melbourne home.

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‘Alive in our hearts’: grieving family pays tribute to 11-year-old Jack Davey after Melbourne school crash tragedy

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‘Beloved son and brother’ mourned, as three children injured in Auburn South primary school car crash remain in hospital with one discharged

Michael and Jayde Davey are clinging to the memories of the positive influence their son Jack had on the community in his 11 years of life after he was killed in a school crash.

Grade 5 student Jack Davey died after a car ploughed through a fence and into a school yard on Tuesday afternoon, hitting a group of Auburn South primary school students sitting at a table.

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Victoria to cut more than 130 bushfire forest service jobs – As it happened

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Young man dies in multi-vehicle crash in Queensland’s Bundaberg Region

A fatal multi-vehicle traffic crash last night at Elliot in Queensland’s Bundaberg Region last night is being investigated by the police forensic crash Unit.

All travel has been appropriately declared and is a matter of public record.

The only people that need to look at the rules are [shadow transport minister] Bridget McKenzie and Peter Dutton. They’ve got some serious explaining to do.

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Attorney general considering releasing full robodebt report – As it happened

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Mark Butler flags importance of an Australian CDC in future pandemic responses

The federal health minister, Mark Butler, spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning, after the Covid inquiry report was released yesterday.

Currently, we’re the only developed country that doesn’t have that single authoritative body that can provide to governments and communities about an evidence-based approach to pandemic response and to other communicable diseases. So that is the foundation on which we build a system to respond to the next pandemic - because there will be a next one – much more effectively than we did to Covid.

We all remember just how incredibly difficult and challenging it was, how it affected every aspect of our lives. And in terms of how the government worked during that period of time – we worked with those public health experts and advisers. Our focus was very much on the health and wellbeing of our community, particularly the vulnerable members of our community who were most at risk.

This was a deadly disease. We saw, particularly overseas, it killed so many people. So we were focused on a public health response – a public health response that was focused on supporting the health of our community, and also too understanding the significant additional supports that we needed to provide to small businesses to support them during this incredibly difficult time.

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‘Hold your little ones really tight’: how an ordinary Melbourne primary school pick-up turned to tragedy

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Auburn South primary school community mourns car crash victim Jack Davey, 11, as four students remain in hospital

It was an afternoon recess on what should have been an ordinary, sunny spring Tuesday at Auburn South primary school.

Within the grounds of the Melbourne school, five primary school students were seated around an outdoor table overlooking a soccer pitch. Moments later, the scene turned to one of horror.

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Shock and grief as boy, 11, dies and four children injured after car crashes through Melbourne school fence

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Victorian premier says ‘dark shadow’ has been cast over city after collision at Auburn South primary school in Hawthorn East

A child has died and four others remain in hospital with serious injuries after a car crashed into a school in Melbourne’s inner east.

Emergency services rushed to the collision that occurred just after 2.30pm on Tuesday afternoon at Auburn South primary school in Hawthorn East.

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Man forced wife and children to work on farm with ‘tyranny’ of abuse, Victorian court hears

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Accused pleads not guilty to 12 charges including seven of causing another person to enter into and remain in servitude

A father has been described as a tyrannical ruler who forced his wife and six children into working on a farm using physical, verbal and emotional abuse.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced the first day of a jury trial at the Victorian supreme court on Monday.

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Australia news live: PM to announce clean energy projects; property market losing heat but prices still going up

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Anthony Albanese to launch schemes in NSW and Victoria today; Domain says rate of price increases is cooling. Follow today’s news headlines live

Bowen derides Coalition’s ‘nuclear fantasy’

Chris Bowen, minister for climate change and energy, is speaking on ABC Radio National this morning.

If I was the energy minister of another country, I would consider the opportunities that I had in that country – but a country saying to Australia, with our excellent renewable resources, that we should go down the nuclear road when we have no nuclear industry, no nuclear expertise of the scale that we would need for a nuclear power industry, is like us going to Finland or Scandinavia and saying, ‘Listen, we know [you have] a lot of snow, but you should really try beach surfing.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.

We have to play to our strengths in Australia, and we have the best renewable resources in the world, and the opposition wants to stop us using them, and in turn, keep coal in the system for longer. They’re quite explicit about that while we wait for this nuclear fantasy to come on board. That would be terrible for emissions and fatal for energy reliability.

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Elections for Victoria’s upper house could be overhauled under proposals to stamp out ‘preference whispering’

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Labor-led inquiry considering six possible options, including adopting Senate system and changing quotas

A Labor-led inquiry is considering a huge overhaul of Victorian parliament’s upper house in an effort to stamp out the practice of “preference whispering” and bring it into line with other Australian jurisdictions.

The electoral matters committee, chaired by the Labor MP Luba Grigorovitch, released a discussion paper on Monday suggesting six possible options for reform, which include adopting the model used for the New South Wales upper house and that of the federal Senate.

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Abandoning Bass Strait oil and gas structures would breach international law, expert warns

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Australia must insist on full removal when ExxonMobil decommissions offshore project, Wilderness Society says

An international law expert has warned that abandoning oil and gas infrastructure in Bass Strait would breach Australia’s obligations under international law, if ExxonMobil pursues this plan in decommissioning its Gippsland offshore project.

Prof Donald Rothwell, who specialises in international law at the Australian National University, said Bass Strait was used for international navigation and had special status under the UN convention on the law of the sea and related International Maritime Organisation guidelines.

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Australia news live: Dutton says he ‘respects’ Crisafulli’s rejection of nuclear power but will push for a ‘mature conversation’

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Earlier this morning, David Crisafulli said it was still a ‘no’ to any nuclear proposal, and Dutton said he ‘respected’ that. Follow the day’s news live

Employment minister Murray Watt has refused to comment on reports Anthony Albanese used his membership in Qantas’s chairman’s lounge to solicit flight upgrades when he was transport minister and opposition leader.

Watt was on RN Breakfast, where he refused to be drawn on what he called “unsourced claim by a journalist” that Albanese would reach out directly to former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce directly about his travel.

If you have a look at Peter Dutton behaviour, for example, several upgrades from the Qantas and other airlines, he’s had free flights paid for by Gina Rinehart.

I really would wonder whether it’s wise for the opposition to start calling this kind of stuff into question.

We obviously spend an enormous amount of time at airports. I think this week, I’m going to be in about three or four different cities, flying from place to place. And it is helpful from time to time, to be able to have private meetings or private environments, to be able to have teams meetings with your office, which I do every time I fly.

We want Labor to negotiate like we did in the previous housing legislation, where we not only improved and passed Labour’s housing legislation, but we got $3bn to start building public and community housing.

I think this is part of the message that we’re trying to give to the government. We are up for negotiation.

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Police find vapes worth $8m after being called to Melbourne warehouse robbery

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About 200,000 e-cigarettes found in Box Hill South after officers were told of reported burglary on Thursday

Victorian police called to an early morning break-in this week found something unexpected: about 200,000 illegal vapes worth $8m.

The vapes were found in a warehouse in Melbourne’s outer east after officers responded to reports of a commercial robbery, police said in a statement on Saturday.

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WiseTech shares surge after CEO stands down – as it happened

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Dutton and Shorten weigh in on Queensland state election

The federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, both spoke with the Today show earlier from Queensland, before the election.

He’s focused on the issues which affect Queenslanders: housing, health, cheaper transport and of course tackling youth crime. So we’ll find out soon enough who’s going to win.

The fact is that it’s time for a change in Queensland and law and order is out of control.

Well, yes, he did. He did three days ago and, despite that, the government’s scare campaign continues.

The scare campaign on a sensitive issue that has been run, quite frankly, crosses the line, and we’re better than that as Queenslanders … There won’t be changes to abortion laws and Queenslanders need to know that.

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