Strong and gusty winds to bite parts of New South Wales as frosty temperatures sweep Victoria
Wild weather conditions are predicted to lash parts of New South Wales on Sunday afternoon, with conditions in Victoria expected to remain icy as the state is swept by another cold front.
The Bureau of Meteorology forecast weather conditions in NSW would ease on Sunday morning before picking up again with strong and gusty winds in many areas of the state for the rest of the day.
Continue reading...Delays at Melbourne and Sydney airports, Frankston pier ripped from its moorings and snow at the AFL as polar blast strikes
Icy winds up to 120km/h, snow, wild surf and rain continued to lash South Australia, Victoria and parts of New South Waleson Friday, and snow fell at the AFL in Canberra.
The “strongest weather system this winter” to hit south-east Australia has continued its path of carnage across the country, grounding flights in Sydney and Melbourne, and leading to hundreds of calls to the State Emergency Service across all three states.
Continue reading...Bill passes lower house of New South Wales parliament after lengthy debate
An NSW bill to decriminalise abortion has passed its first hurdle after a lengthy and passionate debate in the lower house.
However, proponents of the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 face further hurdles as it now goes to the upper house for consideration.
Continue reading...Julie Passas fined $2,500 after calling Ashfield neighbour’s flag celebrating same-sex marriage Yes vote ‘offensive’
A Sydney local councillor’s behaviour has been found to amount to homosexual vilification after she verbally abused a neighbour for displaying a rainbow flag on the day of the same-sex marriage postal survey result.
Julie Passas, who was the deputy mayor of Inner West council at the time, told neighbour Daniel Comensoli the flag he erected to celebrate the 61% Yes vote was “offensive to my culture and religion” and that he should not be allowed to marry “until you could breastfeed and have children”.
Continue reading...Bourhan Hraichie planned attack on Bankstown police station and threatened to kill NSW prisons boss
A New South Wales man who carved a terrorist slogan into a cellmate’s forehead and planned an Islamic State-inspired police shooting will spent at least 29 years in jail.
Bourhan Hraichie, 22, pleaded guilty in the NSW supreme court to four offences over his long-running plan to organise a terrorist attack on Bankstown police station, and causing grievous bodily harm to Michael O’Keefe with intent to murder.
Continue reading...Independent MP Alex Greenwich to introduce bill developed by cross-party working group
The New South Wales health minister has declared it’s “time for change” when it comes to abortion law, ahead of the introduction of a new bill which would see pregnancy terminations regulated as a medical procedure around the state.
Currently abortions in NSW are dealt with under the Crimes Act 1900.
Continue reading...The 51-year-old mother was jailed in 2003 for at least 25 years for killing her four babies
An inquiry into Kathleen Folbigg’s convictions for killing her four babies has reinforced her guilt, a former New South Wales district court chief judge has found.
Reginald Blanch QC, who presided over the inquiry, has concluded he does not have “any reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Kathleen Megan Folbigg”, in a report made public on Monday night.
Continue reading...Canadian police are calling the death of NSW senior police officer’s son and his US girlfriend a double homicide
The New South Wales police have sent two homicide detectives to Canada to assist in the investigation into the death of Lucas Fowler, the son of a senior NSW police officer.
They confirmed on Saturday that Fowler and his American girlfriend, Chynna Noelle Deese, were shot dead on Monday on the Alaska highway, 20km south of Liard Hot Springs, British Columbia.
Continue reading...Counsel assisting coroner says public deserves to know ‘under what circumstances are police entitled to strip search patrons’
The New South Wales coroner will push for the state’s police force to release its strip search protocols as part of an inquest into drug-related deaths at music festivals.
Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer told the court on Thursday that the inquest had yet to receive “police protocols” on when strip searches could be carried out in the state, but that she intended to pursue the matter .
Continue reading...One-year-old Josiah Ntiamoah died after being hit by a car at the front of a Green Valley home
A one-year-old boy who died after he was struck by a car in a driveway in Sydney’s west is believed to be the son of Olympic athlete Isaac Ntiamoah.
The toddler was hit by the car at the front of a Green Valley home about 3pm on Friday, New South Wales police said in a statement. His mother took him to Liverpool hospital but he died a short time later.
Continue reading...Labor says deputy premier John Barilaro’s plan is outrageous while the Greens label it ‘criminal’
New South Wales Labor has demanded Gladys Berejiklian rule out Liberal party support for a Nationals bill that would open up the Murray Valley national park to logging.
The premier refused to comment on Thursday after the deputy premier, John Barilaro, vowed to de-gazette the park in the state’s Riverina region or reduce its size.
Continue reading...Drug educator Paul Dillon says it’s ‘ludicrous’ to think pill testing will stop drug deaths, but Australia does need to try something
One in 20 year 10 students have tried ecstasy, an Australian drug educator has told an inquest into NSW music festival deaths.
“It just baffles me,” Paul Dillon said in Sydney on Tuesday. “Certainly amongst young people, MDMA is the drug of the moment.”
Continue reading...Crystal-lee Wightley dies at her family’s home three days after getting sick
A Melbourne family say they are heartbroken after a 13-year-old girl died from the flu late last week, as the national death toll nears 300.
Crystal-lee Wightley had the flu for three days before she died at her family’s home.
Continue reading...Backdown comes after university intervened to have its governing body sign off on Ramsay Centre degree despite it never being considered by its academic senate
The peak union for university academics and staff has been forced to drop legal action against the University of Wollongong over its approval of the controversial Ramsay Centre-funded western civilisation course.
The National Tertiary Education Union announced on Friday that it had withdrawn its action in the New South Wales supreme court over what it had described as the “unlawful” approval of the degree by the university late last year.
Continue reading...McKay says she can beat Gladys Berejiklian and education will be a ‘critical issue’ under her leadership
Newly elected New South Wales Labor leader Jodi McKay says she is “more than a match” for the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and she is not going to be pretend the two women are anything alike.
McKay’s election on Saturday was a landmark moment in NSW politics, making it the first time the premier and opposition leader have both been women.
Continue reading...Engineers say changes are years overdue and obvious before Opal or Mascot Towers evacuations
Australia’s engineers say the recommendations from Opal Tower have still not been acted on, as the Mascot Towers apartment buildings in Sydney continued to sink further into the ground this week.
An emergency report into the cracked Opal Tower was completed in February by prominent university deans of architecture after the brand-new building was dramatically evacuated in December.
Continue reading...Exclusive: production at Australia’s only nuclear medicine facility halted after ‘safety incident’
Production has ceased and an urgent investigation has been launched after two employees at a newly-opened Australian nuclear medicine facility at Lucas Heights were exposed to an unsafe dose of radiation late last week.
Just two weeks after it was granted a license to enter into full domestic production, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (Antso) has confirmed production at its new $168m nuclear medicine facility has been halted after “a safety incident” on Friday morning.
Continue reading...Apartment owners have voted for $1m levy to fund initial works on the building, which developed cracks in its support structure
A Go Fund Me page has been established to help apartment owners at Sydney’s Mascot Towers in their efforts to have the building repaired, after it developed cracks a week ago.
The 10-year-old building in Sydney’s south had to be evacuated on 14 June when cracks developed in the primary support structure and facade masonry.
Continue reading...Clover Moore says ‘successive federal governments have shamefully presided over a climate disaster’
City of Sydney councillors are set to vote on declaring the climate crisis a national emergency that “poses a serious risk to the people of Sydney”.
If passed, the council will join hundreds of local governments worldwide that have made similar declarations.
Continue reading...Barton Deakin voices support for reforms designed to bolster transparency and integrity
One of Australia’s biggest lobbyist firms has said it “strongly supports” the introduction of an independent commissioner to investigate and oversee the sector.
The New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption is currently probing the weaknesses in the regime governing NSW lobbyists, and its chief commissioner, Peter Hall, has warned reforms are now “overdue”.
Continue reading...