Category Archives: Victoria

Melbourne crash: Daniel Andrews says no additional safety measures possible for CBD mall

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Police insist city is ‘tremendously safe’ following Friday night crash at same Bourke Street mall where six people were killed in 2017

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has said there were no feasible safety measures that could have prevented the fatal crash in Melbourne’s CBD on Friday night, as police assure residents the city is “tremendously safe.”

Police say a white Toyota Aurion struck three pedestrians near a tram stop on Bourke Street on Friday evening, before it continued along the street, T-boning another car and killing the 76-year-old driver.

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Top Indigenous academic quits University of Melbourne law school role and alleges institutional racism

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Resignation of associate dean Dr Eddie Cubillo comes after he delivered speech on his encounters with racism at Melbourne Law School

A leading academic at the University of Melbourne (UoM) has resigned from his role heading Indigenous programs after public complaints over institutional racism at the faculty.

Dr Eddie Cubillo, a Larrakia, Wadjigan and Central Arrernte man, was working part-time as an associate dean and senior fellow at the university’s prestigious Melbourne Law School (MLS).

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Jason Roberts sues Victoria after being wrongfully jailed for police killings

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Roberts seeks damages from the state for the 5,627 days he spent behind bars after winning retrial in court of appeal and being cleared by a new jury

For decades Jason Roberts was branded as a double police killer.

But after winning a retrial through Victoria’s court of appeal and a second jury found him not guilty, he’s now fighting for compensation.

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Teenager charged over attack on boy walking home from school in south-east Melbourne

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A Frankston boy, 14, was charged with offences including armed robbery and intentionally causing serious injury

A teenager has been charged over a violent attack in Melbourne on a boy walking home from school that left him with life-threatening injuries.

The 14-year-old was confronted by a group as he left Glen Eira College in Glen Huntly on Monday afternoon.

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Inquiry into sexual abuse at a Melbourne school to probe allegations at 18 others

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Kathleen Foley, SC, says inquiry will examine other schools where former Beaumaris teachers had worked

An inquiry into historical child sexual abuse at a Melbourne primary school in the 1960s and 1970s will investigate allegations at 18 other state schools where the same teachers also worked.

The Andrews government in June announced a board of inquiry into historical abuse allegations at Beaumaris primary school, in Melbourne’s south-east.

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Where now for Victorian Liberals after ‘massive loss’ of Matt Bach?

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Dashing high hopes after a byelection win, the potential future leader announced he was quitting. Shocked MPs are pondering what’s next

In less than a week the Victorian Liberal leadership went from heralding the “new dawn” of a byelection win to facing an even newer dusk as it lost one of its most valued MPs.

Matt Bach, the upper house MP seen as a future leader by many of his colleagues, shocked the party room on Thursday night when he announced he was quitting politics to move to the UK with his young family at the end of the year.

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Hot El Niño summer brings ‘elevated’ risk of power blackouts to eastern Australia, operator warns

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Australian Energy Market Operator says ‘imminent and urgent investment’ in energy is needed

Eastern Australia requires “imminent and urgent investment” in energy to bolster the reliability of the electricity grid, the Australian Energy Market Operator says, as it warns of the risk of outages in Victoria and South Australia this summer.

The challenges are detailed in an Aemo report, released on Thursday, which says the grid may come under strain even with 3.4 gigawatts of new generation and storage capacity added to the national electricity market compared with last summer.

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Foreign ownership of Australia’s water rights on the rise

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Report reveals that foreign interests hold 11.3% of Australia’s water entitlements – about half of which are in the food and fibre producing Murray-Darling Basin

Foreign interests hold almost 12% of all water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin and the level of foreign ownership in water is increasing, a new report shows.

Foreigners own or have a significant share in 4,503GL of Australian water entitlements, which is 11.3% of all the entitlements across the country, the Australian Taxation Office’s report says.

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Veronica Nelson’s family urges Victorian government to hear ‘cries for help’ and go further with bail reforms

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Exclusive: MPs urged to implement Poccum’s law, named in honour of First Nations woman who died in a cell while on remand

The family of First Nations woman Veronica Nelson has urged the Victorian government to “listen to [her] cries for help” and go further with its proposed changes to bail laws, which will be debated in parliament this week.

Nelson died alone in a Melbourne prison cell while on remand in January 2020 after her calls for help went unanswered. The 37-year-old Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman had been arrested for shoplifting and refused bail before her death.

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Investment in new Australian wind and solar farms stalls amid ‘raft of barriers’, report finds

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First half of year had slowest pace of final approvals in Clean Energy Council’s six years of tracking, but backing for power storage was more promising

Investment in new wind and solar farms has all but stalled with developers facing a “raft of barriers” despite strong political support, the Clean Energy Council said in its latest quarterly report.

The first half of 2023 produced the slowest pace of final investment approvals in the council’s six years of data tracking. Just four generation projects accounting for 348 megawatts – or roughly the size of a single coal-fired power station unit – secured financial commitment in the June quarter.

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Senator responds to report – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Conroy says comments at Labor conference about strategic balance in Pacific

Conroy is asked about comments he made at the Labor conference, saying it is against Australia’s interest to have one power dominate our region, especially one that breaches international laws.

And is it your view that China is trying to do that, dominate our region?

I’m not going to be going into what other countries are doing but it’s clear that we’re seeing great strategic competition in our region, and it’s appropriate that we respond through increased diplomatic engagement and an increasing deterrence in the Australian Defence Force.

They all play complementary roles in promoting peace and stability in our [region].

So this is about peace and stability in our region by deterring conflict and I know you will respond that saying, well, aren’t we just engaging in military buildup, but in the end, the only way we pursue peace and stability is by presenting strength. This is what this is about.

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Mother’s pleas for antibiotics for toddler who died of sepsis were ignored, Victorian court told

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Miranda Jowett, who sought treatment for daughter Dio Kemp six times, tells coronial inquest into her death she was made to feel like an ‘overly concerned parent’

A Melbourne mother who sought medical treatment for her toddler six times before the child died of septic shock has told an inquest that her pleas for antibiotics and further tests were ignored and that she was made to feel like an “overly concerned parent”.

The Victorian coroners court on Monday began an inquest into the death of Dio Kemp, three, who died after she was taken to Monash Medical Centre four times and to her GP twice over eight days in late 2019.

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Victorian recycling company found to have systematically underpaid refugees and asylum seekers

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Company formerly known as Polytrade fined more than $375,000 in the federal court

Refugees and asylum seekers employed to sort rubbish were systematically exploited and underpaid by one of the biggest recycling organisations in Victoria.

A recycling company formerly known as Polytrade, a linked subsidiary, and its owners, were fined more than $375,000 in the federal court this month, over what a judge described as “obnoxious conduct” and a “cavalier disregard” for the law, grossly underpaying migrant workers who spoke little English and were vulnerable to exploitation.

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Bye bye brutalism, hello Instagrammers: inside Geelong’s spectacular $140m arts centre

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Australia’s newest and largest regional arts centre features malleable theatres, Indigenous art and spaces especially designed to get your camera out

When Joel McGuinness was brought on to oversee the redevelopment of the Geelong Arts Centre, and subsequently run the venue as its CEO and creative director, he wanted to change more than the 1980s building’s brutalist aesthetics. He wanted to redefine its purpose, to open it up to people who may have thought they didn’t belong.

“I really wanted to challenge the notion of black box theatres that turn their back on the world,” he says. “To change the relationship between the art and the audience. Because when the baby boomers die out, maybe the institutions as we know them will die out too.”

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Daniel Andrews says $380m Commonwealth Games compensation ‘the best outcome Victoria could get’

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The Victorian premier last month announced Victoria would not host the games after a forecast cost blowout

The Victorian government has agreed to pay Commonwealth Games bodies $380m in compensation after cancelling the 2026 event, in what the premier, Daniel Andrews, is claiming as “the best outcome” the state could get.

Andrews made the shock announcement last month that Victoria would not host the Games as planned due to concerns they would far exceed initial cost expectations.

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Victoria paid EY more than $30m for Covid pandemic health projects

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Public health expert says value of contracts cannot be assessed as they are described using ‘waffle words generated by the obfuscation machine’

The Victorian government paid the consultancy firm EY more than $30m to help manage and deliver key public health projects during the pandemic, including contact tracing and the rollout of tests and vaccines.

Government contracts show the health department paid EY $17.4m for its work on the test-and-trace program, known as Operation Drasi, with EY staff seconded into the department.

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Has the first shot been fired in Victorian Labor’s succession?

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MPs say leaks about alleged branch stacking have escalated the factional war about who will eventually replace Daniel Andrews

Daniel Andrews has not announced plans to resign – but the first shot may have been fired this week in a fight over who will take over leadership positions in the Victorian Labor party when he does.

While unlikely to cause long-term damage to either the premier, or its subject, minister Lily D’Ambrosio, the leak of branch stacking allegations to a newspaper has been described by state MPs as an escalation in the war between Labor’s factions as they begin planning for a future without Andrews at the helm.

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Victorian council did not impede democracy by closing public gallery over disruptions, court rules

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Supreme court dismisses case brought by Darren Dickson, who claimed council failed to meaningfully engage residents over urban design framework for Monbulk

A Victorian council’s decision to hold meetings online did not prevent residents from participating in the democratic process, a supreme court judge has found.

In April, Yarra Ranges council announced it would close its public gallery for council meetings, citing verbal abuse and intimidation from some of those attending, including members of the conspiracist group My Place.

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Australian police rejected Fifa requests for Gianni Infantino to be escorted during World Cup travel

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Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria police turned down request for escort for Fifa president, which is normally reserved for foreign heads of state

Fifa asked Australian police in multiple jurisdictions to provide escorts for president Gianni Infantino during his travel for the Women’s World Cup, but was turned down.

Infantino asked Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales police to provide him with escorts, the Guardian has confirmed.

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Vandals damage Indigenous birthing tree sacred to Victoria’s Djab Wurrung people

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Police investigate vandalism of tree that was set to be demolished for major road project before large protests in western Victoria

A sacred Indigenous birthing tree that was once at the centre of large protests in western Victoria over Aboriginal cultural heritage rights has been vandalised with a pro-highway message and had three drill holes cut into its trunk.

Police are investigating after the tree – sacred to the Djab Wurrung people – was vandalised near Buangor, about 180km west of Melbourne. The Djab Wurrung people have been fighting for four years to prevent the destruction of the birthing trees as part of a major state government road project.

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