Category Archives: Victoria

Archie Roach, Australian songman and voice of the stolen generations, dies aged 66

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Tributes pour in for musician whose song Took the Children Away became the anthem of the stolen generations

Archie Roach, the Indigenous Australian songwriter whose celebrated song Took the Children Away brought national attention to the story of the stolen generations, has died aged 66.

Roach died at Warrnambool Base hospital after a long illness, surrounded by his family and loved ones.

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Karen Andrews links June asylum seeker boat arrivals to Labor policy – as it happened

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Business Council calls Albanese government the most engaged she’s seen

Westacott, the council’s chief executive, told ABC Radio:

I can’t remember a more engaged government than this. I have had call after call after call from ministers.

When you add up all those little things it makes a big difference.

We need to rebrand Australia as a place we want people to come to work.

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Sisters of African descent suspended from Victorian private school for not tying hair back

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Amayah and Safhira Rowe say hair requirement of Highview College in Maryborough causes them pain

Two secondary students have complained to the Australian Human Rights Commission after being suspended from a private regional Victorian school over “disgusting” uniform requirements.

Year 10 and 11 students Safhira and Amayah Rowe were sent home from Highview College in Maryborough on Tuesday after refusing to wear their hair tied back – a school policy – because they said it caused them pain. They both wear their African hair in braids.

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‘Out of step’: Victoria’s first openly gay MP slams Liberal party leadership over Moira Deeming preselection

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Former Liberal MP Andrew Olexander says he is ‘angered’ and ‘disappointed’ with party

Victoria’s first openly gay state MP has slammed the leader of his former party, Matthew Guy, for failing to condemn a newly preselected Liberal candidate who has a history of attacking transgender rights.

Moira Deeming, a teacher and Melton councillor, was preselected at the weekend to replace the outspoken upper house MP Bernie Finn ahead of the November state election.

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Cost of living 2022: see how inflation has changed prices in Australia in the June quarter – interactive

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Use this data explorer to see which goods and services are getting cheaper or more expensive in different Australian cities

Data released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed prices climbing by 6.1% in the June quarter – the fastest annual pace since 2001 – driven primarily by the increasing cost of food and fuel.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed up global oil and gas prices as well as food, with Ukraine unable to export its grain harvest as Russian missile strikes continue on its ports.

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‘Voters don’t want a culture war’: Victorian Liberals raise concerns over preselections

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Candidates include Evan Mulholland from the Institute of Public Affairs and Moira Deeming, who called for abortion laws to be repealed

Several Victorian Liberal MPs have raised concerns the preselection of candidates at the weekend could undermine efforts to present as a more progressive party ahead of the November state election.

Evan Mulholland, from the right-leaning Institute of Public Affairs, was preselected on Sunday for the top spot on the Liberal party ticket for the upper house Northern Metropolitan Region, replacing Craig Ondarchie. This came after Melton city councillor Moira Deeming was endorsed for the Western Metropolitan Region on Saturday.

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Government ‘recognises concern’ over monkeypox with 44 cases recorded – as it happened

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Labor wants consensus between business and unions – Burke

Burke says “everything is on the table” including the potential for fixed enterprise bargaining. He also says that the government would like to seek consensus between business and union groups if it can. Asked specifically about a deal struck between the ACTU and the Business Council last year, Burke says he doesn’t know whether that is possible now but he’d be interested in exploring it.

If I can find agreements where there’s consensus I don’t know whether the consensus of that agreement of a couple of years ago still existed in identical form, but if a consensus like that turns up at the job summit you could work on the basis I will be inclined to grab it, because that did have safeguards around it to prevent workers from in fact going backwards.

When you don’t have an energy policy for a decade that’s inflationary. When you have a skills crisis and refuse to invest in skills, that’s inflationary. So in establishing the first bill will be dealing with in the Parliament will be jobs and Skills Australia, we have already had Chris Bowen taking action in terms of making sure we are dealing with the energy crisis. But none of this turns around straight away.

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Australia records 102 Covid deaths – as it happened

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New South Wales has reported similarly high numbers, with 41 deaths and 14,953 new cases in the 24-hours to 4pm yesterday.

There are 2,176 people with Covid-19 in hospital, and 59 in intensive care. Just over 68% of people have received their third shot, despite a fourth booster now being available.

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Victoria demands AEMO maintain minimum gas storage levels as supplies dwindle

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Gas supplies at the Iona storage facility have fallen due to high demand amid the state’s price cap

The national market operator needs to implement “immediate measures” that address the state’s gas shortage crisis, Victoria’s energy minister says.

Lily D’Ambrosio said the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) must establish a viable plan to control gas supply levels at national storage facilities after it was revealed that the Iona facility near Port Campbell recently dropped to record lows.

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Australia news live updates: Greens aim to ‘improve and pass’ Labor climate bill; Andrews rules out mask mandates as nation records 90 Covid deaths;

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No change in Operation Sovereign Borders policy

Clare O’Neil is asked about the desperate situation in Sri Lanka, where many people are trying to find a way out.

Operation Sovereign Borders is Australian government policy.

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Daniel Andrews apologises for ‘disgraceful behaviour’ of Labor MPs after scathing Ibac findings

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Victorian premier pledges reforms after Operation Watts finds public funds ‘misused’ and codes breached

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, says he takes full responsibility for the “disgraceful” conduct uncovered in a damning report into Labor branch stacking, as he apologised to the public and vowed to implement sweeping reform.

The report of Operation Watts – a joint investigation between the state’s ombudsman and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac) uncovered widespread misuse of taxpayer resources for political purposes and a “catalogue” of unethical behaviour in the Victorian branch of the Labor party including nepotism, the hiring of unqualified people for public roles and using those roles for political party work.

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Victorian spoke of wanting police to kill him before he was shot dead, inquest hears

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Coroner told Gabriel Messo attacked his mother before being shot three times by a police officer in 2020

A Victorian man who was shot dead by police after violently assaulting his mother told a social worker that he wanted an officer to kill him so his pain would end, an inquest has heard.

Gabriel Messo, who had bipolar disorder, was shot in the chest three times by a police officer at John Coutts Reserve in Gladstone Park, in Melbourne’s north, on 16 July 2020.

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Calls for employers to allow working from home as 75 Covid deaths recorded – as it happened

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Victorian students aged eight and over are being urged to wear masks when indoors to help counter the Covid-19 surge.

The request comes in a joint letter from the state education department and independent and Catholic schools.

I respect the fact that people on the crossbench were elected to deliver action on climate change and our government wants to work with them to do just that.

That’s why one of the very first acts of the new government will be to legislate that higher ambition. They want more than the 43% that Labor is offering though.

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Letter urges Victorian parents to send children to school in masks as Covid surges

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While masks remain optional in schools nationwide, authorities in several Australian states have strengthened requests for action

The Victorian education department and independent schools have written a letter to parents urging students over the age of eight to wear masks at school.

While masks are not currently mandated for general student populations anywhere in Australia, a letter signed by the heads of the Victorian government, Catholic and independent schools sectors asks students aged eight and over to wear masks during class and if travelling on public transport. The state opposition has seized on the recommendation, labelling it a “mandate by stealth”.

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PM criticised for ‘delaying’ flood support announcement – as it happened

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Labor adopting ‘take it or leave it’ approach, says Bandt

Bandt warns the government is adopting a “take it or leave it” approach to negotiating climate legislation, when there are real issues to address, such as the extent of climate ambition and how to phase out fossil fuels.

We’re saying that’s not our position. We’re saying we’d be willing to have discussions with the government but these are the things that have to be on the table. We’re not going into it with ultimatums.

I’m not talking about bottom lines and ultimatums but you can’t even have this discussion if the government is saying it’s my way or the highway, which is with where, with respect to the target, where they’re at at the moment.

If we’re negotiating climate legislation, then this government, now they’re in power, has to grapple with the question of are they going to open up more coal and gas projects that could potentially blow 43% out of the water? Just one of those projects could do that.

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Victoria calls on 400 extra health workers to combat rising Covid hospitalisations

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Premier, Daniel Andrews, announces a $162m package to fund specialist staff across 12 hospitals as Covid-related absentee rates climb

Victoria’s ailing public hospitals will be topped up with an extra 400 health workers to combat rising Covid hospitalisations and staff absenteeism.

A $162m package to respond to the emerging Omicron BA.4 and 5 variants, which are leaving more people in hospital and healthcare workers sick, was announced by the Victorian government on Sunday.

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Australia live updates: PM to meet with state and territory leaders at emergency national cabinet meeting as Covid hospitalisations soar

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Australia’s chief medical officer will give a briefing to state and territory leaders on Saturday and the pandemic leave payment is expected to be extended. Follow live

There were 11,082 new cases in the last reporting period, and 66 people are in intensive care.

First home buyers blowing their budgets

Underquoting is where a property is listed at a price lower than what it’s worth to bait buyers.

It’s illegal but it does happen, particularly in the case of auctions, where underquoted prices can attract more buyers and lead to a bidding war.

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‘Not just another wave’: Australia’s Covid hospitalisations reach record levels in several states

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Experts warn of worse to come, with most states likely several weeks away from peak hospitalisation rates

Hospitals across the country are “bursting at the seams” as the number of people being admitted with Covid-19 reaches record levels in several states.

Western Australia recorded its highest number of Covid hospitalisations to date on Thursday, with Queensland also expected to surpass its January peak in coming days.

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Albanese to restore Covid leave payment as emergency national cabinet meeting called

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Australia’s chief medical officer will give a briefing to state and territory leaders on Saturday as government backflips on pandemic support

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Anthony Albanese will propose that Canberra and the states extend the pandemic leave payment during a snap national cabinet briefing that has been expedited to Saturday.

The government has spent the past week signalling the existing $750 payment would not be extended over the winter for budgetary reasons, but that decision has been reversed after mounting pressure from backbenchers, premiers, and health experts.

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