Category Archives: Victoria

Police and crime researchers fear social media’s affect on crime in NSW and Victoria

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Data released in both states suggest online posts may have contributed to a rise in certain types of crime

Social media platforms allowing teenagers to brag about crimes might be contributing to an increase in youth offending in Australia’s most populous states, Victorian police and New South Wales’ crime statistics agency say.

In Victoria, data from the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) released on Thursday reported that home burglaries committed by 10-to-14-year-olds increased by almost 87% in the 12 months to 31 March, compared with the prior year. This is despite youth offending being down by almost half, compared with a decade ago.

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Almost every Victorian Indigenous prisoner has enrolled to vote for body negotiating treaty

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First Peoples’ Assembly will begin negotiations with Andrews government later this year

Almost every Victorian Indigenous prisoner has enrolled to vote for the body that will negotiate the state’s nation-first treaty negotiations.

The second iteration of the First Peoples’ Assembly will begin negotiating a landmark statewide treaty with the Andrews government later this year, once its election results are announced in the coming days.

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Australia politics live: Labor blocks Zoe Daniel’s push to ban gambling ads but promises ‘comprehensive’ response to issue

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Tony Burke says Labor committed to strong consumer protections regarding online gambling and does not oppose principle behind independent’s bill

‘A sackable offence’

Here is how that “conversation” played out.

What we want understand now is whether this Labor minister was in fact complicit in politicising this event. That is unforgivable.

Not only that, misleading parliament is a serious offence, a sackable offence and standing by this minister, if she has misled parliament, has consequences.

You were in the Senate yesterday when Katy went through what happened and what I’d like to understand from you is how is it the two years after this event you are trying to make this somehow the problem of the current government when we were not even in government, not four years after this event occurred.

The real issue is the fact that a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted in our workplace and I would really like to focus on that is the main issue here because that is the main issue here, because that is the subject that matters.

What we are finding out now is what the minister knew and why her testimony to the Senate as different from that. There’s a lot of considerations here, I know people are talking about how this information came into the media and certainly the media has a lot of considerations to make.

There has to be respect for the parliament and the court and the law but that information is now out there and journalists need to make decisions about whether it is in the public interest.

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Calls for restorative justice after ‘dehumanising’ incidents in Victoria’s mental health care system

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‘I chewed my way through the restraints in front of two security guards who were laughing at me’, says one woman

When Victoria’s mental health royal commission made landmark findings of systemic human rights breaches in 2021, there was little that surprised Anna*.

At the time of the inquiry’s hearings, Anna had numerous stints in the psychiatric wards of Victorian public hospitals. She said the experiences were “dehumanising” and often chipped away at her will to live.

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‘It nearly crushed me’: Brett Sutton resigns as Victoria’s chief health officer

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Sutton says the pressure of the public role through the worst of the pandemic took a toll on his family

Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, says there were moments during his time as the face of the state’s Covid-19 response that would have “crushed” him were it not for the support of his family, as he announced his resignation on Friday.

Sutton said he would be leaving the Department of Health after 12 years to take up a position as director of health and biosecurity at the CSIRO from September.

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Major newspapers could face a $40m hit if governments follow Victoria in abandoning print advertising

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Data highlights total government spending on print as experts say Daniel Andrews’ move will be watched

Major metropolitan newspapers could lose up to $40m in advertising revenue if state and federal governments follow Victoria’s lead and pull their print advertising.

In 2022 state and federal governments spent about $40m placing government ads in major capital city newspapers, and another $5m on digital advertising on news websites like heraldsun.com.au and theage.com.au, according to media agency data collected by Standard Media Index.

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Losing bidder for Myki system upgrade tells Daniel Andrews tender process was ‘flawed’

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Government defends processes and the US company that won the tender, saying it has ‘reputation for delivering successful projects’

A losing bidder for the contract to overhaul Victoria’s Myki system has written to the state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, to claim his government ran a “flawed” tender process and questioned whether the chosen company will be able to provide the technology it has promised.

Senior executives at Cubic wrote to Daniel Andrews last week, detailing their “serious concerns about possible errors in the tender process” for the public transport ticketing system.

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Can your suburb help fix Australia’s housing crisis? It all comes down to density

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Despite adding millions of people and dwellings over the past decade, our cities are well behind globally in terms of population density

Skyrocketing rents and a projected home shortage have sparked fierce debate on the most effective ways to address Australia’s housing crisis.

Experts say one of the most effective fixes is to increase the supply of housing, specifically infilling urban areas to increase the density of areas where people actually want to live.

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Victorian private schools ‘fear-mongering’ over job losses after tax exemptions axed, experts say

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About 110 of the state’s top high-fee paying private schools will be required to pay tax on staff salaries, raising more than $420m over three years

Fears that stripping “high-fee” Victorian private schools of their payroll tax exemption will lead to job losses are a “red herring”, education experts say.

The change, revealed in last week’s state budget, means about 110 private schools will be required to pay tax on staff salaries, raising more than $420m over three years.

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Warm winter weather awaits Australians after month of record-breaking cold

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After shivering through an unexpectedly cold May, BoM forecasts higher-than-average daytime temperatures, along with colder nights and less rain

Winter is coming … even though it may not feel like it.

With Thursday marking the first day of winter, much of Australia can look forward to a warmer-than-average season, after a historically cold May for much of the east coast.

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Australia politics live: Lambie threatens to disrupt Senate over Afghanistan medals; question time under way

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Adam Bandt rails against Woodside’s exclusion from petroleum resource rent tax

Greens leader Adam Bandt is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast about the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) changes and in particular the fact that Woodside’s Western Australian North-West Shelf project isn’t included in it.

The tax is still broken, and they’re meant to be subjected to it. They should pay their fair share of tax. As I say, even after these changes, Australia only brings in a few $100 million extra from these big gas corporations that are making billions of dollars of profits. It’s about a 10th of what comparable countries bring in. If we made these guess corporations pay their fair share of tax. They’d be an extra $94 billion over the decade to go to things like delivering cost-of-living relief, funding a rent freeze, getting dental into Medicare.

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Video shows car speeding moments before crash in Victoria that left four dead

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Footage uploaded to Snapchat shows the Toyota Corolla travelling along a narrow road near Bochara apparently at 130km/h

Video footage has emerged from inside the car involved in Saturday’s quadruple fatality before it crashed into a tree, killing three teenagers and a 31-year-old woman in south-west Victoria.

The footage shows the car travelling along a narrow country road over the shoulder of the driver as music plays, before zooming into the speedometer.

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Melbourne public transport card readers won’t accept credit cards or iPhones until 2025

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Exclusive: upgraded Myki ticketing system could have been in place sooner, according to alternate proposals tendered

Using credit cards and iPhones to tap on to Melbourne public transport won’t be a network-wide reality until at least 2025, but the Victorian government has defended its new ticketing contract amid claims other bidders could have implemented the compatibility faster.

Upgrades to existing card readers on trams, buses and trains – as well as more ambitious schedules for the installation of new readers – were detailed in two proposals to overhaul the Myki system that would have seen credit card and iPhone payments accepted across the network before 2025, Guardian Australia understands.

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Teenager fights for life after car crash kills four people in Victoria’s west

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Police investigating cause of single-vehicle accident after car lost control and hit tree

A teenage girl is fighting for life as police probe a single-vehicle crash that killed four others in regional Victoria.

Police remained at the scene of the crash on Wannon-Nigretta Falls Road, Bochara on Saturday evening after the car with five people on board lost control and hit a tree.

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Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly says Facebook must act against ‘tidal wave’ of racist trolls

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Indigenous body says it has blocked about 300 people in the past week who used racist slurs

Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly has called on Facebook to act against the “tidal wave” of racist online trolls that it says have targeted its work.

But Facebook’s parent company Meta has defended its record of addressing online abuse, saying it was a problem all tech companies needed to confront.

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Cold snap with damaging winds, hail and snow forecast for Australia’s south-east

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Severe weather warnings for wind gusts of up 100km/h issued for Tasmania, Victoria and NSW, BoM says

A cold front is set to sweep across Australia’s south-east in the coming days, bringing icy winds and steep drops in temperature.

The front is brushing the southern tip of Western Australia and is expected to strengthen and intensify as it approaches south-eastern Australia.

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‘Hitlist’ of private schools criticised and businesses and public sector join outcry over Victorian budget

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New tax measures and job cuts to help repay state’s Covid debt spark criticism from multiple groups

Victorian private schools are among a chorus of critics of the state’s latest budget, after payroll exemption for schools with “high fees” was cut and landlords and big businesses were hit by new taxes.

To help repair the state’s budget bottom line, the Andrews government on Tuesday revealed more than 100 private schools will no longer be shielded from payroll tax in a budget measure the opposition and independent education sector warns will lead to higher fees for parents.

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Property market revival continues; employment minister dismisses wage price spiral fears – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Birmingham says cost of Coalition’s jobseeker plan is ‘being worked through’

Asked whether the Coalition would support a lift to the jobseeker payment, Birmingham tells David Speers that Peter Dutton has “proposed an important alternative that would help Australians who are willing to and looking to engage in the workforce”.

We’ve outlined an alternative at this stage, David. We are not at an election and not about to firm government in the next two years.

That clarity should be there before the prime minister entertains a formal state visit to Beijing.

We should expect them to be lifted complete, as we should the tariffs on our wine industry.

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Moira Deeming supporters boo and walk out on Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto at state council

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Group heckled Pesutto and held masks of Deeming’s face at party’s state council in Bendigo

Supporters of Victorian MP Moira Deeming have walked out of a Liberal party conference as tensions flare between members over the decision to expel her.

A small group clutching masks of Deeming’s face and a sign labelling the Liberal leader, John Pesutto, a “bully” shouted “shame, shame” as he took to the stage at the party’s state council in Bendigo on Saturday.

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Cancelling Victorian LGBTQ+ events in response to threats only rewards extremists, expert warns

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Emergency meeting to address the targeting of LGBTQ+ events hears from extremism expert who says cancellations are exploited as victories by far right

Cancelling events such as drag storytime because of threats from far right groups only emboldens opposition to them, an extremism expert who has advised Victorian councils has warned.

About 100 representatives from councils across the state came together on Thursday to discuss the rising levels of disruptive behaviour directed at meetings and LGBTQ+ events such as drag storytime.

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