One sailor each on yachts Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline died after being struck by the boom, a large pole at bottom of the sail
Two Sydney to Hobart sailors on separate yachts have died at sea amid wild weather conditions that forced line honours favourite Master Lock Comanche to withdraw among mass retirements.
The race will continue as the fleet continues its passage to Constitution Dock, with the first boats expected to arrive later on Friday or early Saturday morning.
Continue reading...Experts say ‘disappointing’ relationships with gambling industry, including funding for research, should be scrutinised
The University of Sydney has financial stakes in the world’s biggest poker machine manufacturer and a global sports betting giant, both of which have funded its academics and bankrolled specialist gambling research centres.
Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show the university held shares in Aristocrat, and in Entain, which runs the Ladbrokes and Neds brands, between 2021 and early 2024. Shares may have been held before and after this period, beyond the scope of the FoI.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Fires burning in Grampians national park, Bullengarook, Creswick and at the Gurdies after residents of Bornes Hill, Moyston and Pomonal ordered to leave. Follow the latest updates live
Authorities in Victoria have issued an emergency warning for a bushfire at Mafeking in the state’s west.
Locals have been told to take shelter immediately.
Continue reading...Search operation for 15-year-old moves into ‘recovery phase’ after he went missing at North Avoca Beach on the Central Coast
Tributes are flowing for 15-year-old Luca Bennett as rescue crews scale back a search for the teenager after he was swept off rocks at a popular beach.
Luca went missing about 3pm on Christmas Eve off North Avoca Beach on the New South Wales Central Coast.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Follow today’s news live
Detectives investigating four separate incidents of children being approached by drivers in white vans in Melbourne
Victoria police detectives are investigating four separate incidents in Melbourne in the last month of children being approached by drivers in white vans.
People like Mr Rogan prey on people’s vulnerabilities: they prey on fear, they prey on anxiety, they prey on all of the elements that contribute to uncertainty in society.
They entrepreneur fantasy outcomes and conspiracy outcomes as being a normal part of social narrative – I personally find it deeply repulsive.
Continue reading...Officers could be barred from marching in 2025 over concerns force hasn’t improved relations with LGBTQ+ community
New South Wales police are facing a ban from the upcoming Mardi Gras parade over concerns about the force’s relationship with the queer community.
At the event’s annual general meeting on Saturday, members will vote on three resolutions on police participation in the parade after uniformed officers were banned from joining the 2024 march.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...76-year-old was convicted in 2023 of a historical charge of carnal knowledge as a teacher of a girl aged under 17
Wife-killer Chris Dawson is seeking to overturn his conviction for sexual activity with one of his teenage students after a bid to appeal his murder verdict failed.
The 76-year-old was convicted at Sydney’s Downing Centre district court in June 2023 of a historical charge of carnal knowledge as a teacher of a girl over 10 and under 17.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
More on the new Malaysia-based maritime institute:
The government is contributing $1.78m over four years to support the institute, which will train regional government officials on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, broader maritime law and ocean governance, awareness of maritime domains and environmental protection.
We don’t want to see any unilateral changes to the status quo across the Taiwan straits, and our focus is on doing everything we can in terms of exercising our international voice around promoting stability and peace in and around the Taiwan straits, in and around Taiwan.
Rules and norms are vital for our shared maritime region and the countries of our region make an ongoing contribution to maintaining and promoting them.
The institute will deliver training to officials from across the region on complex maritime legal and policy topics. It will nurture leaders and help further our collective contribution to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Police used discretion to divert just 6.9% of people caught with personal use quantities of drugs from criminal justice system, data shows
A New South Wales government program that gives police discretion to divert people found with small quantities of illicit drugs away from the courts has only been extended to 6.9% of people caught, including just 2.6% of those who are Indigenous.
The major reform by the Minns government came into effect in February this year and was flagged by the attorney general, Michael Daley, as a way to treat drug use as a health issue rather than a criminal one. Yet data obtained from NSW police under freedom of information shows the vast majority of those caught with illegal drugs continue to be criminalised.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...The Victorian premier has defended the state’s business credentials saying there’s key data missing from the Business Council of Australia’s report. Follow today’s news headlines live
Weather check shows mixed conditions forecast across Australian cities
It’s a mixed, if warm, bag in capital cities today, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting storms in Melbourne, sunny skies in Brisbane and Adelaide and showers across all other major cities.
Continue reading...Aemo says it does not want to ‘directly control people’s rooftop solar’ but it may be necessary to reduce or cut off power gleaned from the sun
The power grid in eastern Australia could experience “outage conditions” as soon as next spring unless states speed up actions to cope with surplus generation from solar panels on sunny days, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) has warned.
In a report released on Monday, Aemo called for an “emergency backstop” mechanism to ensure grid stability when households and other solar photovoltaic (PV) owners export excess electricity.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed.
The health minister, Mark Butler, is holding a press conference in Adelaide to announce the endometriosis drug Visanne will be added to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. It’s the first listing of an endo treatment in three decades.
This is a condition that impacts more than 1 million women – one in seven women and teenage girls – and for too long, too many women have been made to suffer in silence.
[They’ve] been told by many healthcare professionals, it has to be said, that this is “normal”. That it is a normal part of period pain or many other explanations for debilitating, crippling pain.
This is all about providing cheaper medicines and cutting-edge treatment to Australian patients generally, but [particularly] in the area of endometriosis, which has attracted such inadequate support for hundreds of thousands of Australian women.
This listing is beyond time.
The major contributor to the record has been the minimum temperatures, which averaged 17.2ºC over the spring season for the site, and were elevated by cloud cover, precipitation, and most notably, humidity.
Continue reading...Allan Chiem, 31, will remain in custody after allegedly murdering his father, 69, and mother, 68
A 31-year-old man has been charged with allegedly murdering his parents at their shop in western Sydney.
Allan Chiem appeared in Parramatta local court on Sunday morning after he was arrested just after midnight at a home in Canley Heights in the city’s west and charged with two counts of domestic violence murder.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Bodies discovered on Saturday morning after police were called to shop on Oxford Street in Cambridge Park following reports of an assault
New South Wales police are appealing for information after two people were found dead with “significant injuries” in Sydney’s west on Saturday morning.
Officers were called to a shop on Oxford Street in Cambridge Park, near Penrith, after reports of an assault at about 9.40am.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Host of ABC Sydney Drive wanted to highlight ‘joy in the everyday’ rather than report on ‘terrible things’
In the competitive world of talk radio Richard Glover is the great survivor who stayed on top and chose the manner of his exit after almost three decades on ABC radio.
The former Sydney Morning Herald journalist has owned the Drive slot in Sydney for 26 of his 28 years on the ABC, offering listeners a mix of hard news, insightful interviews and what he says is the “silly and stupid” that makes up the life of a city.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Stores in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT affected as industrial action by up to 1,500 employees stretches into second week
Woolworths bears responsibility for the empty shelves seen in supermarkets across parts of Australia by attempting to treat workers like “robots”, the head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions has said, as a strike of warehouse workers extends into a second week.
Up to 1,500 employees began rolling 24-hour strikes on 21 November in warehouses in New South Wales and Victoria, seeking improved wages and safety. One of the major issues is a new framework system employed at the warehouse that tracks workers down to the minute, and logs performance each shift using an algorithm.
Continue reading...‘Abrupt’ announcement will affect many women who have been planning their conception journeys to begin in early 2025, provider says
IVF providers are bracing for an influx of patients scrambling to access fertility treatments over the Christmas break after the New South Wales government said it would cut a rebate for fertility treatments for many patients from February.
The $2,000 rebate, an Australian-first program, was available to all NSW women accessing fertility services for the first time to cover some out-of-pocket expenses. It was introduced in 2022 by the former Coalition government.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Ronald Greentree and his company Auen Grain cleared 1,262 hectares of land home to 30 threatened species, NSW government says
The former graincorp chair and prominent wheat farmer Ronald Greentree has been handed a record fine of more than $1m for illegal land-clearing in the north-west of New South Wales.
Greentree and his company Auen Grain were sentenced in the state’s land and environment court on Friday for offences related to illegal clearing of an area larger than Sydney airport on the property “Boolcarrol”, north-west of Narrabri.
The sentence follows a 2022 court decision that found Greentree and Auen Grain guilty of eight separate land-clearing events at the property between December 2016 and January 2019.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...NSW police officer who fatally shot 95-year-old with Taser extends ‘thoughts and prayers’ to Nowland family after manslaughter verdict
The New South Wales policeman who fatally shot a 95-year-old great-grandmother with a Taser has said he never intended for her to be harmed, and remains “entirely devastated” for her family’s loss.
Sen Const Kristian James Samuel White shot Clare Nowland with his Taser in a Cooma nursing home in the early hours of 17 May 2023, after she refused to put down a sharp knife. Nowland fell and struck her head, dying a week later from inoperable bleeding on the brain.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
Canavan says under-16 social media ban has caused new generation to become passionate about democracy
Nationals senator Matt Canavan was loudly outspoken against the under-16 social media ban bill and voted against it – but as we know, the bill ultimately passed.
It has been great seeing people learn how the parliament works. And with that in mind, note that the social media bill is not yet law. Tomorrow morning it heads back to the House of Representatives because there were amendments passed in the Senate tonight. It then has to go to the governor general. But both these steps are almost certain to happen.
Thanks again for all of your help and support. We got some amendments on digital ID so it was not for nothing and the fight continues.
As it currently stands, underlying inflation is still too high to be considering lowering the cash rate target in the near term.
Continue reading...