Powerhouse museum: NSW premier dumps plans to close Ultimo site

Industrial science museum will not be closed and moved to Parramatta but will operate across both sites

The New South Wales government has made a U-turn on its decision to relocate Sydney’s Powerhouse museum, more than five years after the announcement was made.

The industrial science museum in inner-Sydney’s Ultimo will not be closed and moved to Parramatta, but will stay open and operate along with the new Powerhouse facility planned for western Sydney.

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Sydney’s water supply at risk because of department failure on conservation, audit finds

NSW audit office blasts water conservation efforts and finds Sydney Water was two years too late in responding to recent drought

The New South Wales government has failed to investigate or implement water conservation measures for greater Sydney, leaving the city’s water supply vulnerable to the effects of population growth, drought and climate change, the state’s auditor has found.

The report by the NSW audit office also found Sydney Water was two years too late in increasing funding for water conservation in response to the recent drought.

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NSW court blocks refugee rally after police accuse protesters of ‘Russian roulette’

The rally, which was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, has been declared a prohibited public gathering

Refugee activists have vowed to push ahead with a planned protest this weekend despite the supreme court prohibiting the event amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Justice Michael Walton on Thursday night granted a NSW police application for the rally to be declared a prohibited public gathering.

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Black Lives Matter protests: Sydney rally given green light as court ruling overturned

Thousands gather in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane to protest against Indigenous deaths in custody

The Sydney “Stop All Black Deaths in Custody” rally has been declared an authorised public assembly after a late decision by the court of appeal as thousands of protesters rallied in cities and towns across Australia to march against Indigenous deaths in custody and the killing of unarmed US man George Floyd.

The decision came minutes before the rally’s scheduled start at 3pm outside Town Hall on Saturday.

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Greenacre crash: 10 people injured after car smashes into hijab store in western Sydney

Car appeared to accelerate away from traffic lights directly into shopfront in Greenacre

Ten people have been injured, at least one seriously, after a car crashed into a hijab store in Sydney’s west on Thursday afternoon.

Emergency services said they were treating a driver and nine pedestrians, after a people mover van drove into Hijab House in Greenacre, on the corner of Waterloo and Boronia roads, shortly after 3pm on Thursday.

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Bondi Pavilion restoration to begin in June in rare win for community rights

Construction union lifts green ban after being convinced plan will preserve site for public

Bondi Pavilion, the grand old deco lady of Bondi overlooking Australia’s most famous beach, is finally about to get a facelift.

After nearly a decade of rancorous debate, lustful looks from developers, community protests and a green ban, the work on restoring the pavilion is expected to begin in June.

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Night at the museum: Sydney man charged after allegedly breaking into dinosaur exhibit

CCTV footage shows man strolling through exhibits at closed Australian Museum and posing for selfies with head inside mouth of T-Rex skull

A Sydney man will face court on Monday after allegedly breaking into Australia’s oldest museum and snapping selfies with the dinosaur exhibit.

The man broke into the heritage-listed Australian Museum in Sydney’s CBD just after 1am on Sunday 10 May, and was captured on CCTV cameras wandering around the exhibits for around 40 minutes, according to New South Wales police.

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Room with a poo: the tiny Sydney apartment for rent with a toilet in the kitchen

The studio flat in Surry Hills leaves little to the imagination but is still attracting interest in a quiet rental market

Australia’s property market has taken a massive hit thanks to coronavirus, with sales values dropping as much as 85% in Melbourne over the past two months, and many tenants breaking their leases because they can no longer afford rent.

But you can bank on Sydney to hold on to its hot housing prices.

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Coalition credibility is only as strong as its weakest link – and right now that’s Angus Taylor | Malcolm Farr

There’s no evidence the minister did the dodgy document deed himself. But someone did and it’s hard to believe he doesn’t know who

There are 13 people who should be able to help resolve the Angus Taylor mystery – and help the energy minister get it off the political agenda.

They are the 13 who downloaded the Sydney City Council annual report 2017-18 between Friday 6 September and Monday 9 September last year.

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Angus Taylor and Scott Morrison won’t be able to brush off uncomfortable questions much longer | Malcolm Farr

As Australia moves back to normal activities, the Coalition will be held to account on standards of integrity

It has taken a cruel and untamed global disaster to draw attention from the government’s record of questionable integrity standards.

That record is bulging with episodes of controversial conduct, and they are not going to disappear into post-coronavirus history.

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Bondi beach and Bronte welcome back swimmers as coronavirus lockdown relaxed – in pictures

Waverley council in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has reopened Bondi, Bronte and Tamarama beaches to swimmers and surfers between 7am and 5pm on weekdays. The beaches were closed as Australia’s coronavirus restrictions came into force. They are to remain closed on weekends, and only the water is ‘open’, with sunbathing, walking and jogging on the beach not allowed

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Sydney man charged after allegedly fighting for al-Qaida-linked Syrian terrorist group

Police allege the 44-year-old travelled to Syria in 2012 and 2013 to fight ‘for months at a time’

A Sydney man has been charged after allegedly fighting for an al-Qaida-linked Syrian terrorist group “for months at a time” in 2012 and 2013.

The 44-year-old was due to face Parramatta bail court on Saturday after tactical police arrested him in a car park in Mount Lewis on Friday.

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Deserted Sydney: drone footage of Australia’s biggest city empty in coronavirus lockdown – video

The Opera House, ferry terminals, parks and squares – all  the city's most popular spaces have been nearly cleared of people. Central Sydney experienced a dramatic drop in workers and shoppers as the government ordered pubs and restaurants to close, and businesses asked their staff to work from home as part of efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19

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Coronavirus Australia live news: chief medical officer says global cases could be 5 to 10 million – latest update

Brendan Murphy says he is totally confident of infection rates in Australia because of our high rate of testing. Follow live updates

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We might leave it there for the night. Thanks so much for reading today.

Hopefully you’re enjoying your Friday night, despite these strange times.

The @YourAFAP union says all 220 @TigerairAU pilots have been made redundant effective today.

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Australia coronavirus live update: Scott Morrison announces free childcare as death toll rises to 24 – latest news

Victoria and Queensland register deaths as Western Australia flags border closure and federal government acts on childcare and industrial relations concerns. Follow live updates

The PM stresses that the “health advice we have is that there is no health reasons why children can’t go to school”.

Asked if taxes will increase to pay for its massive stimulus funding, Morrison does not address this directly.

Obviously there will be a heightened debt burden as a result of decisions we have had to take. They have been necessary decisions. Otherwise the calamity for Australian households economic will be disastrous. We have taken that decisions of government to step up and to make this commitment to provide people with an economic lifeline over the many months ahead. But you are right, we will have to then work hard on the other side to restore the economy. Now, that’s why we are being so careful not to have things that tie the economy and the budget down off into the future. We do need to snap back to the normal arrangements on the other side of this.

Morrison says schools have been planning for a “balance – a combination of distance learning” and, for those who can’t “provide a learning environment at home, for the children to be able to return to school”.

School will return after the holidays. They just won’t be holidays that most school students have known for a long time. And when they go back, it’s the learning that matters, and we hope to have an arrangement that can return as much to normal as possible.

But we have to accept that there will be, for some protracted period of time, this combination of distance learning, and for those who can’t do that at home, no child should be turned away.

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NSW Port Authority warned in January of ‘gaping hole’ in coronavirus biosecurity checks

Maritime union said the requirement for ships to ‘self-declare’ illness was ‘woefully inadequate’ 50 days before Ruby Princess allowed to offload sick passengers in Sydney

The New South Wales Port Authority ignored warnings in January of the need for tighter biosecurity checks, the Maritime Union of Australia says.

In an email seen by Guardian Australia, MUA secretary Paul Garrett warned the NSW Port Authority chief executive, Philip Holliday, that ship captains could not be relied upon to self-disclose illnesses on board.

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Bondi beach closed down after crowds defy ban on gatherings of more than 500 people

Authorities say lifeguards will now be directed to close any beach where headcount reaches more than 500

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Australian authorities closed Bondi beach and removed hundreds of people from other popular Sydney beaches on Saturday, citing the “irresponsible behaviour” of large crowds that had gathered in clear defiance of public health warnings.

Images of a packed Bondi on Friday – when temperatures in parts of Sydney exceeded 35C – were criticised internationally as governments in Australia announced stricter regulations to encourage social distancing and restrict the spread of the coronavirus.

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Chinese film star Yunxiang Gao and producer found not guilty of raping woman in Sydney

Actor and producer Jing Wang acquitted of sexually assaulting woman at the Shangri-La hotel in 2018

A Chinese movie star and producer have been found not guilty of raping a woman inside a Sydney hotel room, ending the near two-year legal saga.

Actor Yunxiang Gao and producer Jing Wang were on Thursday found not guilty of a raft of charges and cleared of sexually assaulting the woman inside the Shangri-La Hotel in the early hours of 27 March 2018.

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Australia’s biggest cities eerily quiet as coronavirus fears mount – in pictures

Shops and cultural institutions are closing their doors, workers are being asked to stay at home, and self-employed and casual staff are losing their jobs across the country. Here’s what’s (not) happening in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane after Scott Morrison banned non-essential indoor gatherings of 100 or more people and declared a human biosecurity emergency

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Coronavirus school closures: dozens of Australian private schools move to online learning

New South Wales teachers union warns it is ‘impossible’ for schools to practise social distancing measures recommended by the government

Dozens of independent schools across Australia are going ahead with shutdowns as the New South Wales teachers union warns it is “impossible” for them to practise social distancing measures recommended by the government.

On Tuesday, Pymble Ladies College in Sydney joined dozens of private schools in Victoria when it announced it would move to online classes from Thursday.

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