Traditional owners call for special rights to prevent government repossessing land as Victoria prepares for treaty talks

Indigenous traditional owner groups and advocates submit major land reform proposals to state’s truth-telling commission

Victorian traditional owner groups are calling for special land rights to prevent land they own from ever being repossessed by the government, as the state prepares for nation-first treaty talks to begin this year.

Indigenous traditional owner groups and Aboriginal advocacy organisations have submitted major land reform proposals to the state’s Indigenous truth-telling commission which is this year investigating housing and land inequality facing First Nations Victorians. The inquiry’s recommendations could inform treaty negotiations which are scheduled to begin later this year.

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Passenger dies and child in critical condition after car hits tree and catches fire in northern Victoria

Police say three people were in the car and the child and driver have been airlifted to hospital

A person has died and a child has been airlifted to hospital in critical condition after the car they were travelling in left the road and hit a tree in Echuca.

Victoria police say they believe the car was travelling along the Murray Valley Highway just after 12.30pm when the accident occurred.

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Tabcorp banned from accepting cash in unsupervised Victorian machines after teen gambles almost $100,000

Exclusive: Boy’s mother says she had to withdraw her super and re-mortgage home to pay off his debts to criminals

Betting giant Tabcorp has been ordered to stop accepting cash at its machines in Victorian pubs and clubs unless they are properly supervised by staff after a teenager – with gambling debts of nearly $100,000 – placed bets at multiple venues.

According to the state’s gaming regulator, the 16-year-old was able to gamble on more than 30 occasions between May 2022 and October 2023 at multiple venues across Melbourne’s northern suburbs. The matter is the subject of ongoing court action against venues.

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Tobacco wars: Victoria police ‘turning the corner’ in battle against arson attacks as more arrests made

Police arrest four men and a boy alleged to be connected to the Finks motorcycle gang and a series of arson attacks on tobacco stores

Police have arrested four men and a boy believed to be connected to the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang and a series of arson attacks on tobacco stores in Victoria.

The arrests are the latest example of police responding to the so-called tobacco wars, which have seen criminal gangs fight for control of the “significant source of income” generated by the sale of illicit tobacco.

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MDMA overdose: nine people hospitalised after Melbourne music festival had severe hyperthermia

Authorities believe extreme heat and physical activity, rather than a single bad batch, exacerbated drug’s impact at Hardmission

All nine people hospitalised after a mass drug overdose at an electronic music festival in Melbourne last weekend suffered severe hyperthermia, with three people remaining in a critical condition.

Another woman in her 30s was hospitalised on Friday after a suspected drug overdose at a separate music festival in the Melbourne suburb of Flemington. She remains in a critical condition.

Victorian health authorities believe the overdoses at last weekend’s Hardmission festival were not caused by a single bad batch of the drug MDMA as originally feared and that extreme heat and physical activity exacerbated the drug’s impact.

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Three men allegedly linked to bikie gang arrested after Melbourne tobacco shop torched twice in two days

Police allege the men are connected to fires at the Altona business, as well as an arson attack at a Croydon tobacco shop

Three men allegedly linked to a bikie gang have been arrested after a twice-targeted tobacco shop was destroyed by fire and another was set alight on Christmas Day.

The first blaze broke out at the shopfront on Pier Street in Altona just before 4am on Thursday.

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Triple murderer Farquharson loses claim over gravesites of children he murdered

Robert Farquharson’s name has been removed from the headstone of his three children, whom he murdered in 2005

Robert Farquharson has been stripped of his control over the gravestones of the three children he murdered when he drove a car into a dam in 2005, after a Victorian government intervention.

Farquharson is the first convicted person in Victoria to lose the rights over a family member’s gravesite after legislative changes in 2021. It comes almost two decades since he deliberately drove his three children into a dam in south-western Victoria, in an act of revenge against his ex-partner for leaving him.

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Top Australian debt collector still operating in Victoria despite blacklisting

Exclusive: Consumer Affairs Victoria investigating Panthera, which was fined $500,000 in 2020 after pursuing debts from people who were not liable

One of Australia’s largest debt collection companies is continuing to operate in Victoria despite being blacklisted in the state over its unlawful pursuit of false debts, undue harassment and misleading conduct.

Panthera Finance and its subsidiaries are major players in the Australian debt collection and acquisition sector, and were paid millions by the former government to help collect welfare debts for Services Australia.

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Police on alert for potential violence at Eritrean festival in Melbourne

Supporters of the African nation’s dictatorial regime have clashed with opponents in the diaspora at similar events in other countries

Australian federal police and government officials have met representatives of the Eritrean community in a bid to avoid potential violence during a planned cultural festival in Melbourne’s western suburbs this weekend.

Similar events held in Europe and North America in recent months have ended in violence and arrests, as supporters of the African nation’s regime clashed with members of the pro-democracy youth movement Birged Nhamedu.

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Woman rescued after car swept into swollen Bendigo Creek as floods peak in Victoria

Man jumped into rushing flood waters and tied 74-year-old woman to a tree after she was swept 100 metres downstream

A man jumped into rushing flood waters to save a woman swept away into Bendigo Creek, risking his own life to secure her with ratchet straps to a tree, as Victorian towns braced for more flood damage.

The rescue came amid flash flooding across parts of the state, which emergency services on Tuesday afternoon said was easing. However, flooding along several rivers continued, with 20 properties in and around Seymour affected by the deluge.

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PM flags consideration of dedicated force for natural disaster responses amid climate crisis

On recent floods in Victoria and Queensland, Albanese said Australian defence force was a vital asset but that future recovery mitigation may need a re-think

Anthony Albanese and the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, say a re-think of disaster recovery and flood mitigation may be needed due to climate change, with at least 26 homes inundated in the state’s flooding.

Across Victoria, 61 emergency warnings remained in place on Tuesday afternoon as Mooroopna and Shepparton, in the state’s north, brace for high and moderate flooding in the coming days.

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Calls for nationwide pill testing after suspected MDMA overdoses at Melbourne music festival

Eight people were in induced comas after the Hardmission event at Flemington on Satuday

The suspected MDMA overdoses at a Melbourne music festival that left eight young people in medically induced comas over the weekend has sparked renewed calls for nationwide pill-testing programs.

Harm reduction and social justice advocates, and the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA), were among those urging state governments to legalise pill-testing, saying the scale of the overdoses highlight the urgency of the issue.

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This article was amended on 8 January 2024 after Ambulance Victoria clarified that eight people were in induced comas, not seven.

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Labor ‘not giving up’ on republic push – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

Liberal senate leader and shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham says a reported bomb threat against a person flying the Palestinian flag in Botany “has no place in our nation”.

He wrote on X (formerly Twitter):

Australia is a democratic nation of free speech. Whether driven by disagreement, intolerance or Islamophobia this act has no place in our nation.

Whatever anyone’s views about flying the Palestinian flag at this time, this is illegal and reprehensible behaviour to be condemned.

ENOUGH! TAKE DOWN FLAG! ONE CHANCE!!!

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Victoria weather: warnings of further rain amid evacuations and dozens of flood rescues

Parts of Seymour and Yea subject to evacuation orders as BoM forecasts more intense rain and wild weather

Residents in north-eastern Victoria are bracing for further flooding in the coming days, after heavy rainfall inundated the state and forced two towns to evacuate.

An evacuation order was issued for parts of the Goulburn Valley town of Seymour, in central Victoria, shortly before noon on Monday, before similar orders were put in place for sections of nearby Yea.

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Man sues Victorian police after being shot in leg during routine response to noise complaint

Andrew Wilczewski, 50, was shot in his yard in 2020 while holding a shovel, after an officer scaled his fence

A man who was shot in the leg by a junior police officer during a routine response to a noise complaint has sued Victoria police for compensation.

Andrew Wilczewski, 50, was shot in his back yard while holding a shovel, allegedly “fearing for his safety”, after an officer scaled his back fence and started banging on windows.

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Hundreds call for help in Victoria and SA amid heavy rain and severe storms

‘The amount of moisture across Victoria at the moment is incredible,’ the Bureau of Meteorology says

Hundreds of people across Victoria and South Australia have called for help after heavy rain and severe storms lashed the two states.

Residents in Victoria’s north and north-east were warned to expect rainfall totals up to 200mm when thunderstorms sweep across the state on Sunday and Monday.

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Man charged after four stabbing attacks in Melbourne overnight that seriously injured victims

Victoria police say random attacks were not terror-related with 31-year-old man facing 15 charges

A man is facing more than a dozen charges after he allegedly stabbed four strangers in Melbourne overnight in what police say were “completely random” and unprovoked attacks.

Officers on Sunday arrested the 31-year-old Melton man who allegedly used public transport to travel across the city when committing three separate attacks on Saturday night.

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Alleged Melbourne home invader shot dead after struggle, police say

Man found dead in driveway of Donnybrook home with gunshot wounds after ‘firearm claimed off one of the offenders’, detective alleges

A man found dead in a driveway in Melbourne’s outer north was allegedly part of a group of home invaders before he was shot during a struggle, police say.

The man, who was yet to be identified, was found outside the property on Middlemount Street in Donnybrook, 30km north of Melbourne’s CBD, at about 4.20am on Sunday.

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Baby in critical condition in Victoria after being delivered in ‘freebirth’

Ambulance Victoria says woman and baby taken to hospital after incident in town of Ocean Grove

A newborn baby is in a critical condition in hospital after being delivered in an apparent “freebirth” in regional Victoria.

The medical industry has expressed concern about the practice, which is typically characterised as a birth without help from a healthcare professional.

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Sleeper services may return on Sydney-Melbourne route after new trains arrive, as night patronage booms

Exclusive: NSW government says it is open to all options even though new rolling stock, now due in 2026, will have reclining seats only

The permanent withdrawal of sleeper carriages on Sydney-Melbourne trains may be averted after new rolling stock enters service, thanks to the increasing popularity of intercity rail.

New Spanish-built trains ordered by the previous Coalition government were initially meant to enter service in January 2023, but are now not expected to be running before April 2026. As yet, there is no firm arrival date.

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