Category Archives: New South Wales

Protests across Australia as Penny Wong despairs ‘continued retribution’ in Middle East

Posted on by

Local Jewish and Palestinian groups are preparing to mark one year since the October 7 attacks

As Palestinian and Jewish groups prepare to mark the first anniversary of the events that triggered the current Israel-Gaza conflict, the Australian government has again condemned the escalating cycle of violence in the Middle East, reiterating demands for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.

“We’ve seen so much violence in the Middle East,” the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on Sunday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Melbourne in for chilly start to week as cold front brings frosty spring temperatures

Posted on by

It follows a weekend of wild weather in NSW, where SES responded to 270 calls including two adults and a baby stranded in flood waters near Tweed Heads

A cold front moving across southeast Australia is promising to bring more frosty temperatures through next week after parts of New South Wales and Victoria shivered through a cold, wet and windy spring weekend.

Rain is expected for south-east Queensland, the New South Wales mid and north coasts over the next few days, but not in the quantities seen over the weekend.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Kenneth died after routine knee surgery. His devastated family want answers

Posted on by

Kenneth Toll, a 62-year-old diabetic, was found dead in a private NSW hospital’s bathroom three days after his operation

Craig Rose recalls catching up in a pub with his best friend of 35 years, Kenneth Toll, when they saw two old men sitting and laughing together at another table. Toll gave Rose a nudge and said: “That’ll be us one day”.

Toll was wrong.

Continue reading...

Man, 47, charged with murder after woman found dead at NSW property

Posted on by

Police say the 46-year-old woman was found with significant injuries at Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley on Friday afternoon

A man has been charged with murder after his wife was found with fatal injuries at the couple’s Hunter Valley, NSW, property.

Emergency services were called to a property in Pokolbin, about an hour’s drive west of Newcastle, just after 6pm on Friday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Four dead in two-vehicle crash in western New South Wales

Posted on by

Two men, believed to be in their 20s, and an older man and woman, were killed in the incident near Dubbo

Four people have died in a two-vehicle crash on the Newell Highway at Tomingley in western New South Wales.

Four people – two men, believed to be aged in their 20s, and an older man and woman – died at the scene of the crash that happened at around 9.20pm on Friday.

Continue reading...

‘People are dying’: rise of nitazenes should be treated as pandemic, injecting centre head says

Posted on by

Exclusive: Dr Marianne Jauncey says NSW government must make ‘hard decisions’ to combat growing threat of synthetic opioids

The head doctor at Sydney’s medically supervised injecting centre has compared the rise of synthetic opioids to a pandemic and says she is worried the government isn’t willing to make the “hard decisions” necessary to prepare for it.

Dr Marianne Jauncey began raising the alarm about the increasing prevalence of nitazenes earlier this year but was concerned the Minns Labor government had been reluctant to act because it “still feels for many like an emerging news story”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Keating says Labor ‘flogging a dead seahorse’ over Aukus deal; severe weather for parts of NSW and Queensland

Posted on by

The BoM has issued a severe weather update for parts of north-east NSW and south-east Queensland as wet and windy weather continues to batter the east coast. Follow today’s news headlines live

Dutton says PM ‘desperately hoping’ interest rates will fall

Opposition leader Peter Dutton believes Western Australia will play a crucial role in the election. He told the West Australian:

My judgment is that we’re waiting for the results to come in from WA before we know the outcome of the election this time around.

It depends on whether the prime minister’s waiting to see if interest rates come down.

He’d be desperately hoping that they come down in February of next year and he can go from there.

We live in the territory. This is our home. We are fighting to protect our water from the dangers of fracking.

Continue reading...

Three charges including one of rape against high-profile Sydney man withdrawn during trial

Posted on by

The man is accused of raping five women, with charges regarding a sixth withdrawn on Thursday. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges

A high-profile Sydney man has had three charges against him – including one count of rape – withdrawn for an undisclosed reason and the complainant will no longer appear before the court.

The complainant who alleged the man had assaulted her three times, which led to the charges, was set to be the sixth and final complainant to appear before the New South Wales Downing Centre district court.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

NSW MP Gareth Ward says he went to parliament in his underwear at 4am after being locked out of his apartment

Posted on by

Member for Kiama denies he was drunk at the time and says some media reports concerning the incident are ‘defamatory’

New South Wales politician Gareth Ward has denied being drunk when he went to state parliament at 4am on a Sunday morning in July, insisting he was simply collecting a spare key after locking himself out of his apartment in his underwear.

The Kiama MP said he made the eight-minute trip to parliament on foot from his Potts Point apartment on the “freezing” morning because he’d been locked out without his phone.

Continue reading...

Man charged with murder after allegedly stabbing rugby league player in Sydney’s Marrickville

Posted on by

Police arrest 31-year-old man in Concord after Sitaleki Filihiahekava died on Monday evening

A man will face court over the alleged stabbing death of another man on a busy Sydney street.

The 31-year-old was arrested at Concord in the city’s inner-west on Wednesday afternoon and is due to face Burwood local court charged with murder on Thursday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Opposition leader calls for university’s leaders to quit – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has joined an international push “to hold the Taliban to account” under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Wong says:

We know the women and girls of Afghanistan are effectively being erased from public life by the various edicts the Taliban … have issued.

The steps we are taking with Germany, Canada and the Netherlands are unprecedented. We are intending to use the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, to which Afghanistan is a party, to take action.

If I can … say again to the Australian Lebanese community. This is a deeply distressing situation for so many of you. I know that there are many Australians in Lebanon. There are many Australians who have relatives, family and friends in Lebanon. I again urge Australians in Lebanon to leave now. There are flight cancelations and disruptions, and there is a risk that Beirut airport may close for an extended period of time.

Please do not wait for a preferred route. Please take the first option you can to leave. We continue to monitor the situation closely. We have been working with partners on contingency plans now for many months but I again say to anyone who any Australian who is in Lebanon: please leave now.

Continue reading...

Contraceptive pill available over the counter for more women in NSW after ‘huge success’ of trial

Posted on by

No requirement to go to GP for new prescription for pill, as long as it has been taken for at least two years

More women in New South Wales will have easier access to the oral contraceptive pill as a trial designed to reduce pressure on the state’s healthcare system becomes permanent.

Under the changes, from Saturday women will be able to get a resupply of their pill from a certified pharmacist without needing to go back to the doctor for a new prescription – as long as they have been taking the medication for two years.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

NSW public housing official allegedly told woman she would get a home faster if she had sex with him

Posted on by

Exclusive: Woman says she was ‘desperate’ to find a home for her and her child and was ‘preyed’ on by the staffer

Police are investigating a Homes New South Wales employee, who is alleged to have propositioned a woman on the waitlist for public housing, claiming that if she had sex with him he would arrange for her and her child to get into a home faster.

The woman, who is a survivor of domestic violence and had fled in order to escape her ex-partner, said the man sent her explicit text messages from his work phone and picked her up to take her for sexual encounters in his work car.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Man jailed for pretending to rob Sydney jewellery store in $2.8m insurance fraud plot

Posted on by

Shanel Tofaeono tied up store employee whose hands were ‘shaking so much due to fear’, judge says

A man who pretended to rob a luxury jewellery store and tied up a terrified employee as part of an alleged $2.8m insurance fraud plot has been jailed for his crime.

Shanel Tofaeono, 39, was part of a wider scheme allegedly headed up by jeweller Michel Germani to stage a robbery of his Hilton hotel store in Sydney’s CBD in January 2022.

Continue reading...

Greens MP invokes Whitlam in public housing push – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Plibersek approves three coalmine expansions

We have more on environment minister Tanya Plibersek’s approval of three coalmine expansions on Tuesday from Graham Readfearn here.

There’s a range of everyday common health conditions that are unnecessarily blocking up our emergency departments and contributing to those wait times to see our precious general practitioners.

We would love to see more GPs. Who doesn’t love their local family doctor? My wife and I and our children certainly do. But we all know how difficult it is to not only find one, find one that bulk-bills, but find one that hasn’t closed their books and can take an appointment. That’s not just in the bush, that’s in our major capital cities as well, whether it’s after 6pm or on a weekend, when your local pharmacy is open.

Continue reading...

‘It’s a deadly gamble’: NSW urged to act on ‘growing threat’ of nitazenes amid push for drug-checking services

Posted on by

Exclusive: Legalise Cannabis party MP calls on government to recognise that powerful synthetic opioids ‘aren’t just another drug’

The New South Wales government will be asked to formally recognise the powerful synthetic opioids called nitazenes as a “growing threat” as it faces calls to introduce drug-checking services.

The Legalise Cannabis party MP, Jeremy Buckingham, will move a motion in state parliament on Wednesday night to acknowledge that nitazenes are an emerging problem, including for people who don’t typically take opioids.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Three per cent of patients died after undergoing knee replacement by NSW doctor, inquest hears

Posted on by

Orthopaedic surgeon Elie Khoury performed the operations which have a usual mortality risk from 0.1% to 0.8%

Three per cent of an orthopaedic surgeon’s patients who underwent bilateral knee replacement surgery at Albury Wodonga private hospital died, a New South Wales coroner has heard.

Kenneth Toll, 62, died on 20 July 2019 three days after undergoing the elective surgery at the hospital. The inquest, which began on Monday, is examining the medical care and treatment provided to Toll in the lead-up to his death.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

A police strip-search left Mysa feeling dehumanised. New data reveals the extent of the practice in NSW

Posted on by

Exclusive: Figures made public for the first time expose ‘problem with police accountability’, lawyer says

Mysa Le felt “vulnerable and completely helpless” when she was ordered by police to undress in front of them so they could search her body for drugs.

Le was strip-searched at Sydney’s Midnight Mafia music festival in May 2018, where she said two female police officers took her into a booth and told her to take off her clothes without explaining what was happening.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Campaign demanding University of Sydney vice-chancellor resigns is ‘dangerous’, Jewish Council warns

Posted on by

JCA’s Sarah Schwartz says targeting Mark Scott’s handling of pro-Palestinian encampment risks conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism

A “concerted campaign” calling for University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott’s resignation is “dangerous” and conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism, the Jewish Council of Australia says.

Scott is facing calls to resign over the university’s handling of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. He has apologised and conceded the university must do better.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Suspected poisoning of 30 magpies in Cootamundra under investigation

Posted on by

Local vet says nine birds have died and the rest are being treated, with many unable to stand or walk

The New South Wales environmental watchdog is investigating a suspected poisoning that has left nine magpies dead and more than a dozen others needing treatment.

Karlie Johnston, the practice manager at Cooper Street veterinary hospital in Cootamundra, said 30 magpies had been brought into the vet in recent days. Many were unable to stand or walk, and some had completely lost the use of their legs.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...