Category Archives: Victoria

Australia news live: NSW health system ‘catastrophically let down’ toddler’s family, minister admits

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Two-year-old waited in emergency department for three hours before suffering a cardiac arrest and dying. Follow today’s news headlines live

Victoria to offer contactless public transport tickets from next year

Victorians will be able to use their phones, bank cards or smartwatches to pay for public transport travel from “early next year in a staged approach”, according to reports.

Following a successful start of a ticketless bus trial in Wangaratta, the Allan Labor Government will begin switching on tap-and-go technology across Victoria’s public transport network from early next year in a staged approach – meaning some passengers will soon be able to use their bank cards, phones and smart watches to travel on full fare tickets.

The new ticketing system will continue to be underpinned by extensive technical testing and will be carefully rolled out starting with rail from the beginning early next year – allowing full fare passengers more ways to pay for their travel.

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‘Wilful acts of bastardry’: former Treasury secretary says young Australian workers ‘robbed’ by tax system

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Ken Henry made comments at a tax summit in Melbourne, arguing fiscal drag is seeing taxes go up while real incomes fall

Recent governments have carried out “wilful acts of bastardry” and created intergenerational inequality and environmental destruction that will leave younger voters worse off, the former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has said, urging tweaks to Australia’s tax system to bridge the growing divide.

Henry, who worked under both the Howard and Rudd governments, used a speech at the Per Capita tax summit in Melbourne on Thursday morning to argue the country’s tax settings since the Howard government have fuelled inequality and left further generations and young workers “to pick up the tab”.

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Victoria to axe thousands of public service jobs as treasurer warns of ‘difficult decisions’

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Independent review asked to recommend cuts to public service to reduce workforce by 5%-6%

Thousands of public service jobs in Victoria are to be slashed after a review ordered by the state’s new treasurer, who has warned “difficult decisions” need to be made to bring the budget under control.

Jaclyn Symes and the premier, Jacinta Allan, on Thursday announced an independent review into the Victorian public service (VPS), to be headed by Helen Silver, a banking executive and former head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet under John Brumby and Ted Baillieu.

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Melbourne woman charged over two alleged Islamophobic attacks at shopping centre

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Charges laid after two Muslim women were allegedly attacked at an Epping shopping centre on Thursday

A woman will face court charged over allegedly Islamophobic attacks on two women at a shopping centre, as one of the victims says she remains terrified.

The 31-year-old Pascoe Vale woman is accused of assaulting a pregnant 30-year-old Muslim woman inside an Epping shopping complex in Melbourne’s north on Thursday, before allegedly attacking 26-year-old Ealaf Al-Easawi about 10 minutes later.

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Albanese says RBA rate cut ‘won’t have an impact’ on timing of federal election – as it happened

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The prime minister was also asked to weigh in on the ongoing dispute between the NSW government and rail unions – and whether the federal government plans to intervene.

But Anthony Albanese shot this suggestion down, saying this was “a state dispute of a state branch of a union over pay with a state government”.

I support very much the efforts of the Minns government to bring this dispute to an end, common sense has to apply here, and I think that the union needs to acknowledge that it is alienating people through these actions of not turning up to work. And there was hope on the weekend that it would be settled, [and] it should have been …

We’re getting to the point where the union needs to see common sense, settle this dispute with the Minns government. [The NSW premier] Chris Minns is working very hard to get an end to this dispute.

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Arson attack that killed innocent Melbourne woman linked to tobacco wars, police say

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Katie Tangey, 27, died after arsonists hit the wrong address while she was house-sitting her brother’s home in Truganina in January

A house fire which killed a “completely innocent” woman is a case of mistaken identity linked to Melbourne’s tobacco wars, police say.

Katie Tangey, 27, died after arsonists hit the wrong address while she was house-sitting her brother’s home in Truganina, in the city’s west, in the early hours of 16 January.

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Australia news live: embattled casino operator Star offered $650m lifeline; name of next cyclone changed from Anthony to avoid using PM’s name

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Hume rules out working with teals if Coalition wins 70-72 seats

Jane Hume was asked whether the Coalition was in a position to form any alliances with the crossbench, amid new polling from YouGov showing neither party looks to be coming out with a clear majority.

That would cause chaos, and would cause chaos politically and economically as well.

On average, the teals have voted with the Greens around 78% of the time, with Labor around 75% of the time, and with the Coalition around 18% of the time.

I think it’s really important to look at what people do rather than what people say. We’re planning on going to this election to win the election, because Australians deserve better than what they’ve had for the last three years.

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Police investigate potential Islamophobic assaults at Melbourne shopping centre

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Two women in hijabs allegedly attacked in Epping last week while racist graffiti reported in western Sydney

Police are investigating if two alleged assaults in Melbourne were Islamophobic incidents after women in hijabs were attacked during the day.

Victoria police said two women, a 30-year-old from Lalor and a 26-year-old from Wollert, were allegedly attacked by the same assailant at Epping shopping centre on High Street between 1.10pm and 1.20pm on Thursday.

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Labor gifts duck hunters longer shooting season in Victoria and ups daily kill limit

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Allan government announces extended 2025 duck hunting season with hunters allowed to bag nine ducks a day

Wetland bird hunters in Victoria will have a longer duck shooting season and can take home more birds under new rules.

The Victorian duck hunting season will begin on 19 March and run for 83 days until 9 June, up from 56 days in 2024.

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Belle Gibson: Victorian authorities ‘won’t let up’ on pursuit of cancer con artist’s unpaid $410,000 fine

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Speaking after Netflix released Apple Cider Vinegar, Jacinta Allan says consumer watchdog is ‘constantly’ working to recover fine imposed in 2017

The Victorian premier says the state’s consumer watchdog is “constantly” pursuing cancer conwoman Belle Gibson and “won’t let up” until she pays the fine she was ordered to pay more than seven years ago.

Gibson, who is the now the subject of a new Netflix series, Apple Cider Vinegar, was in 2017 ordered by the federal court to pay a $410,000 fine plus $30,000 in legal costs for misleading and deceptive conduct, after she falsely claimed to have been diagnosed with brain cancer and cured through alternative therapies and nutrition.

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‘Like finding gold’: plains-wanderers spotted in Melbourne’s west for first time in 30 years with help of AI

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Critically endangered bird detected after analysis of tens of thousands of hours of song meter recordings

Critically endangered plains-wanderers have been found living in Melbourne’s west for the first time in more than 30 years.

Notoriously elusive and difficult to spot, the rare birds were detected on two pockets of remnant grassland by Zoos Victoria, with the help of AI.

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Torrential rain and flash floods hit Sydney as massive storms roll across NSW and eastern Victoria

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Bureau of Meteorology warns severe conditions will continue as parts of NSW coated in hail

Thunderstorms across New South Wales and eastern Victoria on Monday brought flash flooding, destructive winds and hail, as the Bureau of Meteorology warns severe conditions would continue.

A major storm rolled across the Sydney CBD around midday on Monday, bringing dark skies and heavy rainfall. By mid-afternoon, he city had recorded 52.8mm of rain at Observatory Hill since 9am, according to the BoM. Horsley Park, 50km west of the city, had recorded 87.8mm.

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Jacinta Allan dismisses rail loop concerns as Labor awaits outcome of massive swing in Werribee

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Victorian premier denies any MPs have told her they want SRL money to be spent elsewhere after byelection battering

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has sought to dismiss concerns that the Suburban Rail Loop project should be halted after Labor took a battering in the Werribee byelection.

Counting resumed in the outer western Melbourne seat on Monday and both major parties expect – if postal votes follow the pattern of those already counted – Labor’s candidate, John Lister, will retain his narrow lead over the Liberal party’s Steve Murphy.

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The weekend byelection results were close to Labor and the Greens’ worst case scenario – but it’s not all good news for the Liberals

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One federal Labor MP said his party’s brand has ‘taken a dive’ in Victoria – but others at the state level believe time is on their side

Counting in the Werribee byelection is still under way. But even if Labor manages to scrape through, the Victorian government is just a few hundred disgruntled votes away from losing its grip on this heartland seat.

That is a problem Jacinta Allan knows cannot be ignored.

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Brad Battin says Liberals ousted Greens in Prahran by ‘listening to locals’ – as it happened

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Coalition backs healthcare package

Gallagher welcomed the opposition backing Labor’s package for women’s health this morning. She said on ABC Insiders:

We know Peter Dutton wanders around saying he’s going to cut a whole range of things. He’s clear he sees a lot of our investments in Medicare as wasteful spending. But these are really good investments into women’s health. And it will make a difference for millions of people across the country including women who are going through men who really have felt left behind by the health system and hopefully these new measures will address all of those issues.

It’s come down quite obviously for women across the country, the use of contraception, going through different stages of your life, including menopause, that these are areas that either haven’t been addressed for decades, or haven’t been met appropriately through the Medicare system. So, you know, we have landed the hospital deal, keep investing in the public health system, we have got a lot of initiatives about strengthening Medicare and this builds on that.

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Victoria byelections: Liberals claim Greens seat as Allan pledges to ‘do more’ after vote dives in Labor heartland

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Greens concede loss to Liberals in Prahran and ALP on a knife-edge in Werribee

The Greens have conceded the loss of the Victorian state seat of Prahran to the Liberals, while the result in the once-Labor stronghold of Werribee remains too close to call.

The Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, said on Sunday the result in the inner-Melbourne seat was close but that it was clear the minor party will “fall just short” when counting resumes on Monday.

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Hot nights expected in southern Australian states as heatwave sweeps east

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‘Prolonged period of oppressive heat’ could push temperatures to mid 40C in South Australia, and mid 30C in Melbourne and Hobart

A heatwave marked by high humidity and hot nights will hit southern Australia next week as heat that baked western parts of the country moves east.

The period of intense heat for southern and central Australia is forecast to begin from Monday and last until Thursday, with South Australia, southern parts of the Northern Territory and far western parts of Queensland bearing the brunt.

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Victorian man charged after allegedly making death threats and antisemitic comments against federal MP

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AFP also allege man used social media to contact Victorian state politician

A Victorian man has been charged in connection with alleged death threats and antisemitic comments against a federal politician in the latest incident investigated by a special police taskforce.

The Australian federal police confirmed on Friday a 33-year-old Reservoir man was charged with four counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence and one count of using a carriage service to threaten to kill.

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Alleged ‘Pam the Bird’ graffiti creator denied bail as court hears of social media-driven reoffending risk

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Jack Gibson-Burrell, 21, to remain behind bars over concerns the prolific design would continue across Melbourne if he was released

A Melbourne man alleged to be the creator of the prolific “Pam the Bird” graffiti will remain behind bars, with a magistrate saying there was a risk of him continuing to target prominent locations to boost his social media notoriety if released.

Jack Gibson-Burrell, 21, appeared in the Melbourne magistrates court on Wednesday morning where he was denied bail over concerns he would commit a serious offence if released.

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‘Intensely hot’ weather continues in south-eastern states as Victoria battles bushfires

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Heatwave not expected to end until Tuesday or Wednesday as fires burn in multiple national parks

South-eastern states sweltering in a heatwave may be waiting until late Tuesday or Wednesday for a cool change to bring some relief.

On Monday, temperatures in Melbourne peaked at 37.8C just before 4pm, after a high of 38C on Sunday.

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