Residents tell of close encounters with the blood-sucking creatures which are spreading because of high rain and humidity
Relentless rainfall has sparked a leech invasion in New South Wales, with no reprieve in sight for already damp dwellings.
The blood-sucking creatures have been attracted into suburban areas, where higher than normal rainfall and humidity are providing suitable conditions to feed.
Continue reading...Isabela Carolina Camelo-Gomez strangled and stabbed her mother, but continues to deny any involvement
A woman found guilty of murder has wiped away tears as she continued to deny strangling and stabbing her mother to death two decades ago.
“I don’t understand, I didn’t do it,” Isabela Carolina Camelo-Gomez said to her legal counsel in the New South Wales supreme court on Wednesday.
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Continue reading...Dominic Perrottet insists government will respond shortly to the ‘complicated issues’ raised by 2018 inquiry into ice addiction
The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, has conceded there are “competing views” in his cabinet over a landmark inquiry that recommended the complete decriminalisation of drug possession.
Perrottet said his government would respond “very shortly” to the findings of the special commission into ice addiction – commissioned in 2018 – after the Guardian revealed there was still no response to the report.
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Continue reading...Big disparities in the informal vote across the nation spark fresh questions about compulsory preferential voting
More than one in 10 votes were ruled invalid in the multicultural seat of Fowler, raising serious questions about whether explanations of Australia’s compulsory preferential voting system are getting through.
Fowler, in Sydney’s south-west, has one of the highest non-English-speaking populations, many of whom have come to Australia as refugees from countries with very different political systems.
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Continue reading...A colleague at childcare centre where Lynette Dawson worked tells court she saw bruises in January 1982
Chris Dawson’s wife Lynette was seen with bruises around her throat three days before she disappeared in 1982, a Sydney court has been told.
Annette Leary gave evidence in Dawson’s murder trial on Monday saying she had seen Lynette Dawson with the bruises at the Sydney children’s centre where they both worked.
Continue reading...Former minister Gareth Ward, who has professed his innocence, has already been suspended from parliament
The New South Wales government has been told it cannot strip suspended MP Gareth Ward of his pay, staff or other entitlements without enacting new legislation, a step it should not take because it “may be vulnerable to legal challenge”.
Ward, the MP for Kiama, was suspended from the state’s parliament in March after he was charged over allegations of sexual abuse against a man and a 17-year-old boy. The suspension came after legal advice found the government could not expel Ward from the parliament.
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Continue reading...Northern NSW continues to be hammered by rain and Queensland’s south-east back on flood watch
Lismore residents are being warned they could be hit with more floods as rain continues in northern New South Wales.
The region has already endured repeated severe flooding in recent months and the Bureau of Meteorology said more could be on the way after rain over the weekend.
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Continue reading...Incoming MP for Fowler Dai Le says decision to parachute Keneally into diverse electorate was a ‘slap in the face’ to locals
The independent candidate who defied a national swing towards Labor by defeating Kristina Keneally in the formerly safe seat of Fowler in Sydney’s south-west says the party was punished for its “arrogance” in parachuting the former NSW premier into the seat.
As vote counting continued on Sunday, the party’s abject showing in Fowler marked a stunning outlier to the national result.
Continue reading...Auditor general says state agencies forked out close to $200m on faulty imported masks and ventilators
The New South Wales government underspent on personal protective equipment and mental health services and forked out close to $200m on faulty imported masks and ventilators as part of the state’s $7.5bn pandemic expenditure, a review has found.
The auditor general released a detailed report on Friday after examining the state’s spending from the first case detected in January 2020 to the middle of 2021.
Continue reading...Woman known as JC told Dawson’s murder trial she felt obliged to move in with him and had wanted to return to her life as a 17-year-old
Chris Dawson’s former student and babysitter has admitted working on a book titled The Schoolgirl, Her Teacher and His Wife, but denied it was because she wanted revenge.
Questioned by defence barrister Pauline David in the NSW supreme court on Friday, the woman known only as JC rejected the suggestion her claims she had been Dawson’s sex slave were a good way to sell her book.
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Continue reading...AEC concedes some Covid-positive Australians ‘may not be able to vote’: prime minister responds after Labor announces policy costings; Covid and illness lead to drop in working hours; nation records at least 52 Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s developments live
Scott and Jenny Morrison are visiting Whitemore in the Labor-held electorate of Lyons in Tasmania this morning.
Brian Mitchell holds Lyons on a margin of 5.2%, although his buffer was inflated by the disendorsement of his Liberal opponent mid-campaign in 2019 for anti-Islamic social media posts. Morrison is still on the offence, seeking gains to offset expected losses elsewhere.
After NSW became the last state to pass euthanasia laws, advocates say they will fight to overturn ban preventing ACT and NT from passing their own laws
Advocates for voluntary assisted dying say they will turn their attention to the federal government to strike down restrictions which prevent the ACT and Northern Territory from passing laws allowing euthanasia.
The backlash comes as New South Wales became the last state to pass the laws. The historic voluntary assisted dying bill passed NSW parliament on Thursday after a months-long campaign.
Continue reading...87-year-old NSW conservative joins the Seniors United party after his Christian Democratic party was deregistered
NSW parliament’s longest serving member, Fred Nile, has joined a new party after the Christian Democratic party he helped found was dissolved in March.
The controversial 87-year-old conservative, who insists he has no plans to retire, has joined the Seniors United party (SUP) of Australia.
Continue reading...JC, who went on to be the family’s babysitter, has given evidence in a Sydney court where Dawson has pleaded not guilty to killing his wife Lynette in 1982
A former student taught by Chris Dawson has told a Sydney court he would call her “petal” and leave secret love letters signed “God” in her schoolbag when she was 16.
The woman, known as JC, gave evidence in Dawson’s Sydney murder trial on Wednesday. She said in 1980 he had wanted to teach her after spotting her in the playground.
Continue reading...Katy Gallagher disputes prime minister’s claims on real wage growth; nation records at least 53 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed
National party deputy leader, David Littleproud was feeling upbeat this morning while speaking to ABC Breakfast TV:
We have achieved a lot together, in fact we have done more than any other nation in the world if you look at an economic and health front. We should be proud but we need to shift gears and make sure we look after those cost of living inflation pressures and who is best to handle that and to drive the economy and to guide the economy. I think that’s where the Australian people are looking at it when the opposition won’t tell them how much of their money they’re going to spend, they’re taking them as mugs. We got to be open and honest and transparent.
We think an upward surprise of 1% q/q growth in [today’s] WPI could be enough to get the RBA over the line for 40 basis points, though if it comes in at our forecast of 0.8% q/q that prospect will recede.
Continue reading...If passed, the state will be the last in Australia to allow terminally ill people to choose when they die
When she moved from Melbourne to Sydney, Siobhan O’Sullivan did not consider what it would mean for the way she died.
But since being diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer mid-2020, the 48-year-old thinks about that decision a lot.
Continue reading...Here’s what is weighing on the minds of five undecided voters before the federal election on 21 May
Undecided voters will play a key role in deciding the outcome of Saturday’s election with many waiting until the final week, days, or even hours, to make their decision.
So what in this very long, and at times messy, campaign has cut through?
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese labels Coalition housing scheme ‘an attack on future savings’; AEC says Advance Australia ‘Greens’ signs in breach of electoral act; home price increases will be ‘marginal’ under new plan, Scott Morrison says; PM says Labor was informed about Aukus when they ‘needed to be’; NSW records four Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s news live
Labor campaign spokesperson Jason Clare has a new line.
He told ABC TV:
The next week is really important. Australians have a big choice to make this weekend. It is a choice between a better future under Labor and more Scott Morrison.
As Australians think about this, they would be thinking “Do you want to wake up on Sunday morning and roll over and see Scott Morrison?”
Continue reading...$20m permit buyback aims to help recovery of jackass morwong, redfish, john dory and silver trevally
The federal government will spend $20m to buy out fisheries in Australia’s south-east in part because the climate crisis is affecting population numbers of some species, making current fishing levels unsustainable.
The Australian Fisheries Management Authority will buy back vessel permits in the south-east trawl fishery, which is the largest commonwealth-managed fin fish fishery in Australia.
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Continue reading...Scott Morrison reiterates new pitch to voters, promising a ‘gear change’, and Anthony Albanese reveals plan to boost primary healthcare. This blog is now closed
Morrison has unfurled his famous boomer dad vibes, snorting at young people using “devices”:
I still remember the mates are used to play with when I was a kid, when I used to go play sport, I used to look forward to it every Saturday and be there with mum and dad, come and be on the sidelines, it is those great
experiences of family life which creates strong families and strong communities.
And by investing in a healthy lifestyles of our children, and doing that with the highly successful sporting schools program, this means we can get more and more about into healthy lifestyles, we need to get them off those phones and get them on the field. I hear some noise from parents who know exactly what I am talking about. And sure, they can have fun with their devices, that has to be on the timing at all the rest of it, you guys struggle without as much as I am sure we all do, but we want them out there running around, we want them living healthy lifestyles.
We have had to come through and toughed it out and push through as hard as we possibly can, and as a Prime Minister and as a government we have had to do that as well.
But as we go into this time of opportunity, and that is exactly what it is, and the kids reminded me of that again this morning, as we go into that time of opportunity, as a government, we change gears, as a Prime Minister, I change gears, and we go and secure those opportunities ahead.
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