Icy morning in south-east Australia sees Canberra mercury dip below -7C

Canberra records its coldest June morning since 1986 and Sydney its coldest June morning since 2010, with the record-breaking weather forecast to continue

Many Australians woke up on Wednesday to record-breaking cold temperatures as Sydney and Canberra experienced their coldest June mornings in more than a decade.

Canberra’s minimum temperature of -7.2C was its lowest since 2018 and the lowest for June since 1986, according to Ben Domensino, a meteorologist at Weatherzone.

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Australia news live: 3.8 magnitude earthquake largest to hit Melbourne in over a century

Thousands of people contacted Geoscience Australia to report they felt shaking, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage. Follow the latest updates

Paterson says the Indigenous voice to parliament’s differentiation on the basis of characteristics people have no control over is “offensive to liberal principles.”

Asked about whether he agrees with his leader Peter Dutton, when he talks about the voice re-racialising Australia, Patterson says:

What proponents of the yes campaign are trying to do is to treat Australians differently. …what we are doing is putting into our constitutional something which treats people differently because of a characteristic over which they have control. And I think that is offensive to liberal principles. And we are all human beings and we’re all Australian, and we should be all treated equally before the law before the Constitution as well.

It is in Australia’s national interest that Ukraine prevail. We have to do everything in our power to ensure they do.

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Victoria earthquake: Melbourne residents feel shake of 3.8 magnitude quake in city’s north-west

Earthquake detected in Sunbury before midnight on Sunday reportedly largest earthquake in over 100 years in the Melbourne metropolitan area

Parts of Melbourne were shaken by a 3.8 magnitude earthquake that hit near Sunbury in the city’s north-west late on Sunday night.

Geoscience Australia confirmed the quake occurred at 11.41pm. Thousands of people contacted the agency to report they had felt the shaking, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage.

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

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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Nurses union fined $350,000 for West Australian strike; Rex Patrick loses FOI challenge – as it happened

The former independent senator has lost his legal challenge against what he argued were unreasonable delays in the freedom of information (FOI) system. Follow the day’s news live

Evacuated dental hospital near site of Sydney blaze becomes emergency services hub

While the light rail that runs past the charred husk of the burnt out building on Randle Ln is running this morning, many of the roads are blocked off by police tape, including a usually very busy section of Elizabeth St, which will likely have an impact on morning traffic.

There’s else a lot of work to be done. The building opposite has been damaged by that extreme heat. Firefighters were able to cut that fire off from spreading into the building across the road. But the main priority is that wall. There are two walls that are in a precarious position.

We are talking about tonnes and tonnes of bricks that could come down and become projectiles that is why we have such a tight exclusion zone, not allowing anyone in, including firefighter[s], until we get the engineers in.

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Fatal Melbourne stabbing: boy, 17, arrested after death of teenager near Sunshine bus station

Boy arrested and police searching for at least two more suspects

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested after a fight between two groups of teenagers which ended with the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old boy in Melbourne’s west.

Homicide squad detectives arrested the 17-year-old boy at Braybrook on Friday after the 16-year-old died on Station Place, Sunshine, on Thursday afternoon.

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Gas lobby plans ‘national public awareness campaign’ – as it happened

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‘Good women’s policy is good economic policy’: Sussan Ley convening women’s economic security roundtable

The deputy opposition leader and shadow minister for women, Sussan Ley, is convening a women’s economic security roundtable today.

Restarting the Career Revive program for older women to retrain and re-enter the workforce.

Greater flexibility in childcare arrangements (for which there are no details, but the rhetoric is consistent with allowing women to use subsidies on alternatives such as nannies).

Paying superannuation on paid parental leave.

Helping older women who face relationship breakdown achieve financial security, including through access to superannuation.

The Liberal party can be the party of choice for women – we must be – and that is why we are going to meet them where they are in life with new ideas and real solutions that help them.

I want the women of Australia to know that the Liberal party that Peter Dutton and I lead will be back in your corner – we will support your career choices, we will look at ways to help you as you manage your work-life balance and we will help you secure your financial independence.

I don’t think anyone would question when you’ve got something like the debt ceiling being negotiated in the United States …

In terms of the relationship between the countries and the strength of the relationship, as allies, that’s all there; and I think anyone who knows what negotiations with the debt ceiling are like in the United States understands exactly why President Biden’s been in a situation to make a decision like this.

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Victoria considers mandates on school bus seatbelts after crash leaves children severely injured

Daniel Andrews says it is important to see if rules around wearing of restraints need to change

Daniel Andrews says the Victorian government will consider mandating the wearing of seatbelts on school buses after a catastrophic crash in Melbourne’s western fringe that left several children severely injured.

A bus carrying 46 students from Exford primary school was struck from behind by a truck at the intersection of Exford Road and Murphys Road in Eynesbury about 3.55pm Tuesday.

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MP questions referendum wording – as it happened

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Quad still a priority, White House says

Despite the postponement of Joe Biden’s visit, the White House says that partnerships like the Quad remain a priority.

Revitalizing and reinvigorating our alliances and advancing partnerships like the Quad remains a key priority for the President. This is vital to our ability to advance our foreign policy goals and better promote global stability and prosperity. We look forward to finding other ways to engage with Australia, the Quad, Papua New Guinea and the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum in the coming year.

I think he will obviously be working very hard for this not to happen. We’ve danced this dance before, as the phrase goes …

I think we’ll get to a good place and I think that’s why he’s wanting to stay there, to focus on just that.

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Melbourne bus crash: truck driver released on bail after several school children injured

Jamie Gleeson, 49, appeared in court after allegedly crashing into bus carrying Exford primary school children in Eynesbury

A truck driver charged after allegedly crashing into a school bus in Melbourne’s west on Tuesday, seriously injuring several children, told police flashes of sunlight may have altered his perception, a court has heard.

Jamie Gleeson, 49, appeared before Melbourne magistrates court via video link on Wednesday afternoon after he was charged with four counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury.

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Council in Melbourne declares health emergency, claiming truck pollution is linked to high rates of illness

Maribyrnong city council says lack of enforcement of road train curfew has undermined its ability to protect residents

A “health emergency” has been declared by a Melbourne council, which claims residents are suffering above-average rates of hospitalisations for certain conditions partly due to a surge in road trains on its suburban streets.

Maribyrnong city council, which takes in Footscray in the city’s inner western suburbs, announced the declaration on Wednesday, claiming rates of illness in the municipality due to pollution “considerably exceed the Australian average”.

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Neo-Nazis clash with police and counter-protesters at anti-immigration rally in Melbourne

Police use pepper spray on crowds outside Parliament House, where a group of masked men performed the Nazi salute

Neo-Nazi and anti-fascist groups have clashed in Melbourne, with police making several arrests and deploying capsicum spray in a bid to quell the violence.

A group led by the self-proclaimed neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell was expected to meet at state parliament at midday on Saturday for an anti-immigration protest, which an anti-fascist group planned to disrupt by rallying 30 minutes earlier, according to multiple posts on social media.

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Councils call off drag storytime and LGBTQ+ events in Victoria after far-right threats

Drag performer who had four IDAHOBIT events cancelled said councils felt they could not create a safe environment

Several councils across Victoria have quietly cancelled drag queen storytime and LGBTQ+ events after threats from far-right groups.

Last week Monash council cancelled a drag storytime event scheduled for International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) after angry protesters derailed a council meeting.

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Heroin overdoses surge in Melbourne as health services struggle to cope

Victorian capital’s CBD recorded most fatal heroin overdoses in country between 2020 and 2022, with 12,000 syringe kits now handed out each month

Stronger heroin on the streets of Melbourne is resulting in a spike in overdoses in the CBD, with community health organisations saying they are buckling under the increased strain.

The most recent data from the Victorian coroner’s court shows between July 2020 and June 2022 Melbourne’s city centre had the highest amount of fatal heroin overdoses of any local government area. There were 29 deaths, followed by 28 in Brimbank and 23 in the City of Yarra.

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Victoria Greens to push for greater access to safe injecting rooms with proposed bill change

Exclusive: Proposed amendment would make North Richmond facility permanent and widen eligibility criteria

The Victorian Greens will introduce changes to a government bill in a push to make it easier to open more safe injecting rooms and allow greater access for the “most vulnerable and marginalised” drug users.

The government’s drugs, poisons and controlled substances amendment (medically supervised injecting centre) bill 2023, which will make the currently facility in North Richmond permanent, will be debated and voted on in the upper house when parliament resumes this week.

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Australia news live: defence strategic review ‘a cannibalisation of army mobility’, Hastie says; Victorian jockey dies after race fall

Review calls for ADF to develop ability to precisely strike targets at longer range and to develop stronger network. Follow the day’s news live

Plibersek v Joyce on Newspoll

In their regular spot on Sunrise, environment minister Tanya Plibersek and Coalition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce weighed in on those Newspoll results.

They’re very strong support numbers, and I tell you the reason is not based on polling but what people tell me when I’m out around the country.

People tell me that they’re pleased to see a government that is just getting on with the job, doing what we promised and they’re impressed that the prime minister is just sticking with what he said he’d do.

We don’t have an election tomorrow and that’s a good thing.

A lot of people are starting to focus now on issues such as the voice and saying, “I don’t feel comfortable with this.”

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Billionaire boys’ club: trucking magnate Lindsay Fox celebrates birthday with men-only knees up

High profile male politicians, sports stars and businessmen attended Scottish-themed lunch at National Gallery of Victoria – but not their female counterparts

There were bagpipes, tartan-clad security guards and plenty of kilts, but there was one thing conspicuously missing from billionaire trucking magnate Lindsay Fox’s 86th birthday party: women.

The Scottish-themed private lunch at the National Gallery of Victoria, to which the Fox family donated $100m last year, was a men-only affair attended by several prominent politicians, sportsmen and businessmen.

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Lidia Thorpe hits back as PM suggests health issues could be behind strip club altercation

The senator called Anthony Albanese’s comments ‘insulting’ after video circulated of her in an expletive-laden argument with several men

The independent senator Lidia Thorpe has hit back at Anthony Albanese’s suggestions that health issues could be behind her early-morning altercation outside a Melbourne strip club, claiming the prime minister and her detractors are “taking their info from rightwing media”.

Thorpe has come under fire this week after video circulated of her in an expletive-laden argument with several men outside a Brunswick club at about 3am on Sunday morning. One person is heard calling Thorpe a “racist dog”. She replies: “Any black man that stands with the fucking white little cunt like that, youse can all get fucked, too.”

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Father Bob Maguire, beloved Melbourne priest, dies aged 88

Maguire, who defiantly and tirelessly advocated for the underdog, brought a legion of new adherents to the Catholic church

The beloved social justice advocate and Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire has died at age 88, his foundation has confirmed.

Maguire defiantly and tirelessly advocated for the underdog. Candid and controversial, he brought a legion of new adherents to the church with his distinctive approach and unwavering commitment to feeding and housing the poor, the hungry and the homeless of Melbourne.

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Experts urge Victoria to provide promised CBD safe injecting room or risk further harm to vulnerable people

Andrews government bought a Flinders Street site for $40.3m in 2021, but it has sat empty since

Victoria risks falling behind the rest of the world if it fails to expand on the success of its safe injecting room in Richmond, according to the head of an international harm minimisation group.

The executive director of London-based Harm Reduction International, Naomi Burke-Shyne, is in Melbourne for the organisation’s annual conference and has called on the Andrews government to provide a promised second safe injecting facility in the CBD.

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