Sarah Hanson-Young demands a royal commission as Bill Shorten urges prime minister to produce all documents
The Coalition is facing calls for an inquiry into the Murray-Darling Basin plan water contracts signed off by the former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce.
As the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called for a royal commission on Saturday, Bill Shorten also weighed in, saying there were now “question marks about the probity” of the “nation’s biggest water purchase”.
Continue reading...Nicholas Bentley, 41, remanded in custody after appearing in central local court
An alleged bank robber is behind bars after presenting himself to police in relation to the murder of an anti-drug “champion” at an inner-Sydney heroin hotspot in the 1990s.
Robert McPherson and an associate were walking back from a bottle shop along a Redfern alley in January 1998 when they were attacked by a group of men armed with baseball bats, a chain, a stick and a knife, New South Wales detectives said.
Continue reading...Photographer Brendan Beirne visited massacre sites across Australia. Using infrared technology he has created a series of images which take you to the unquiet places where Indigenous people were slaughtered
Continue reading...Two cars seen the morning William disappeared were gone by the time family realised he was missing, coroner told
William Tyrrell’s foster mother has told a coroner she immediately thought “someone has taken him” when the New South Wales town of Kendall fell quiet and the three-year-old boy vanished without a trace.
“I couldn’t hear a thing. It was silent, there was no wind, there were no birds,” the woman said in Sydney on Tuesday at an inquest into William’s disappearance and suspected death in September 2014.
Continue reading...Hong Kong man, 36, allegedly hid camera inside a deodorant stick which his French roommate spotted after she finished showering
A tourist from Hong Kong is behind bars after allegedly hiding a camera inside a deodorant stick in the bathroom of a hostel at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach.
The man’s roommate – a woman on holiday from France – had just finished showering when she spotted the camera and a toiletry bag on the sink of their shared ensuite on Monday night.
Continue reading...Government clings to power despite big gains from minor parties and independents
Gladys Berejiklian has said she is confident the Coalition will return to government in New South Wales with a razor-thin majority as counting continues after Saturday’s state election.
The premier, who is the daughter of Armenian migrants, reiterated her objection to comments by the Labor leader, Michael Daley, about young Sydneysiders leaving the city and being replaced by “Asians”, which surfaced in the final week of the campaign, suggesting her background had helped her connect with voters.
Continue reading...Premier says she will work closely with minor parties as prospect of minority government remains
Gladys Berejiklian has led the Coalition to a third term in government in New South Wales despite a rising tide of minor parties and independents, and has become the first woman elected premier of the state at a general election.
Many seats were still too close to call on Saturday evening but one thing was certain – the night had been a huge disappointment for Labor, with no chance of forming government and no major improvement in their statewide primary vote compared with the election four years earlier.
Continue reading...Sydney man Nathan Sykes accused of making violent threats to Melbourne lawyer and journalist Luke McMahon
An alleged far-right extremist has been charged in Sydney with threatening a Melbourne lawyer and journalist who had written about him.
Nathan Sykes was arrested at his Brighton-Le-Sands home on Friday morning and taken to Newtown police station where he was charged with three counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence; and two counts of using a carriage service to threaten serious harm.
Continue reading...There’s a good chance Saturday’s poll will produce a hung parliament. Here’s how to make your vote count – and where to buy your democracy sausage
Almost 5.3 million people are enrolled to vote at more than 8,000 voting stations in Saturday’s state election. New South Wales has fixed terms, with elections held on the fourth Saturday in March every four years since 1995. About a quarter of voters cast their ballot before election day in 2015, and this is expected to rise in 2019. Almost 850,000 people had voted by Thursday morning.
Continue reading...The former Labor minister will face a new trial after the court of criminal appeal quashed his conviction
Former Labor minister Ian Macdonald maintains he’s “absolutely” innocent after a New South Wales appeal court quashed his conviction for misconduct in public office and he walked from jail ahead of a retrial.
The former ALP politician had been in custody since 2017, when he was jailed for 10 years - with a minimum term of seven years - after being found guilty of two counts of wilful misconduct in public office.
Continue reading...‘Unpredictable’ storm could continue to bring abnormally high tides and damaging winds
East coast surfers have defied warnings about large swells whipped up by ex-cyclone Oma, a sub-tropical system that intensified into a category two storm early on Saturday but was downgraded by 11am after taking a south-eastern turn.
The storm, twice the diameter of 2017’s deadly cyclone Debbie, was tracking south towards Lord Howe Island but was predicted to turn and head north again.
Continue reading...The 42-year-old entered closed zone at Whistler Blackcomb resort, reportedly causing an avalanche
An Australian woman has died while snowboarding at the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in Canada.
The 42-year-old, from New South Wales, died after entering a permanently closed zone on Thursday in the area above Lakeside Bowl on Blackcomb Mountain, which is said to have triggered an avalanche.
Continue reading...Report says horizontal support beams were of inferior strength and not compliant with national standards
An independent report has found multiple design and construction faults led to damage at western Sydney’s Opal Tower.
The newly-built tower in Sydney Olympic Park was evacuated on Christmas Eve after cracks were found in the building, sparking fears it could collapse.
Continue reading...Items belonging to Hugo Palmer and Erwan Ferrieux found at Shelley beach on NSW mid-north coast
A British tourist and a French tourist are missing at a beach on the New South Wales mid-north coast.
Personal items belonging to Hugo Palmer and Erwan Ferrieux were found by walkers on Shelley Beach, near Port Macquarie, 390km north of Sydney, at sunrise on Monday.
Continue reading...Mountain Sounds festival called off by organisers a week before event was due to take place on central coast
A New South Wales music festival has been cancelled just a week out from the event, and the organisers say it’s “another example of the government’s war on festivals”.
Mountain Sounds festival was due to be held on the central coast next weekend, but on Saturday the organisers announced it would not be going ahead.
Continue reading...An independent inquiry has delivered its findings about the gynaecologist Emil Shawky Gayed after Guardian Australia revealed he was the subject of dozens of complaints from women about botched surgery and other practices at numerous hospitals in New South Wales and the ACT. Here are some of the cases uncovered so far – the list will be updated as more information is received or when more patients give permission
Continue reading...Eleven people left ill in Sydney and six near Ballarat after Australia Day long weekend music festivals
A teenage boy has been found with almost 600 capsules and $2,000 cash at a Sydney music festival where several people left critically ill due to drug use.
Six young men aged under 25 left the Hardcore Till I Die festival at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday in critical or serious conditions. All were either stable or discharged from hospital by Sunday.
Continue reading...Low dam levels and the drought lead New South Wales government to act
Sydney’s desalination plant was likely to be switched on this weekend because of falling dam levels and the drought, the New South Wales resources minister said.
The plant is turned on when water storages drop below 60%.
Continue reading...With high temperatures also forecast for Victoria and NSW, there are warnings about potential power outages and blackouts, as well as total fire bans amid worsening weather. Follow developments live
Yes please.
Elite marketing by Royal Park Foodland #adelaideheatwave pic.twitter.com/IMMLZdywLq
Just on the issue of heatwaves and climate change, the ABC Melbourne presenter Rafael Epstein has pointed to recent statements from Victoria’s Bureau of Meteorology (Bom).
Just in case someone says hot weather has nothing to do with climate change
"Australia's climate is increasingly influenced by global warming... has warmed by just over one degree since 1910, with most of the warming occurring since 1950."
From @BOM_Vic this month
Five mayors warn their towns could run out of water within weeks and call for their needs to be prioritised over irrigators
The mayors of several western New South Wales councils have warned their townships face major water crises within weeks and have urged the state government to impose a one-month embargo on irrigators pumping from the upper part of the Darling River system.
Continue reading...