Australia news live: RBA ‘didn’t explicitly consider’ hiking interest rates, governor says

Reserve Bank leaves interest rate on hold for seventh meeting in a row. Follow all the days’s headlines live

Tony Armstrong is leaving ABC News Breakfast for a new show screening in 2025. He told viewers this morning:

I just want to thank Brekky and the broader ABC News team for welcoming me in with open arms and helping me grow over the past few years. I love live TV and those moments that are unplanned and unpredictable where anything can happen. I’ve been so lucky to be surrounded by an incredible team and it’s those friendships that I’m going to cherish the most.

How blessed we’ve been to have Tone on our screens every morning, bringing the sparkle, joy and heart that only Tony can! Tony is a wonderful friend and everyone at News Breakfast is going to miss his infectious and caring nature. I know it’s meant so much to me and to thousands upon thousands of First Nations viewers waking up to see Tony representing us on the daily. Can’t wait to see what you do next, Tone! Maybe sleep?!

Continue reading...

Plunging temperatures and rain forecast for Sydney in end to ‘walk-on-the-beach weather’

‘Significant’ change will lead to rain, BoM says, with temperatures tumbling in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane

After a warm start to spring, temperatures are forecast to plummet across Australia’s eastern and south-eastern states in the coming days.

“We are expecting a significant change to come for much of the east and south-east of the country,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jonathan How said, with New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Brisbane forecast to experience cooler weather in the coming days.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

NSW to help renters avoid added app fees and make it easier to keep a pet

Landlords will have to offer convenient ways to avoid extra charges when paying the rent

New South Wales renters will no longer be made to pay extra fees when they pay the rent and will have greater rights to keep a pet in a suite of reforms to be announced on Monday.

The state government plans to introduce legislation to modernise the state’s rental regulation into parliament in October.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Bushfire risk on Sydney’s northern beaches downgraded

NSW Rural Fire Service said 80-hectare fire was now under a ‘watch and act’ warning

A fire in Sydney’s northern beaches that firefighters had warned was threatening lives has been downgraded after conditions eased.

The NSW Rural Fire Service had earlier on Saturday warned people in the Cromer Heights area near Oxford Falls Road that their lives were at risk and that they should immediately seek shelter.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Woman allegedly raped by high-profile Sydney man hoped they would be together, court hears

The man, who cannot be named, has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including six counts of rape

A woman who alleges she was raped by a high-profile Sydney man has denied she is “completely making the incident up”, a court has heard.

Under cross-examination by David Scully SC, the woman was also asked about her feelings for the man, and about her statement to police that she thought she and the man were going to “be together” and that she “had an obsession with him”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Greens MP to tour Sydney Jewish Museum and donate funds after offensive ‘tentacles’ trope

Exclusive: Jenny Leong, who apologised after referencing antisemitic cartoon, was subject of human rights commission complaint

New South Wales Greens MP Jenny Leong will visit the Sydney Jewish Museum and has donated $4,000 after a complaint was lodged with the Australian Human Rights Commission over comments she made about Jewish lobby groups last year.

Leong apologised and said she did not intend to reference an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as an octopus after footage emerged of comments she made at a Palestine Justice Movement forum in Sydney in December 2023.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

NSW nurses and midwives announce strike – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Australia’s ‘sex report card’ released

The latest Australian Study of Health and Relationships was revealed at a conference in Sydney this week held by the International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Rent assistance went up by $25 and … average rents have gone up by more than $100. What might look like a big percentage increase is, frankly, fuck all, and that’s one of the reasons that this is so upsetting.

When CRA is indexed, the amount of rent that you have to pay before you get any rent assistance increases. So the proportion of your rent, where you qualify for it, reduces if you aren’t receiving the maximum payment.

Continue reading...

Man fights for life after allegedly being shot twice in rural NSW home invasion

Police say victim, 46, was at home in Hillston, near Griffith, when he was shot in the abdomen by an intruder on Friday morning

A man is fighting for life in hospital after allegedly being shot twice in the abdomen when a group of intruders entered his home in a small town in rural New South Wales.

Police alleged the 46-year-old man was inside a home in Burns Street in Hillston, about 100km north-west of Griffith in the state’s Riverina region, when three people – one armed with a gun – came inside the house about 2.30am Friday.

Continue reading...

NSW police reopen two investigations after landmark gay hate crime inquiry

Police commissioner Karen Webb hopes new technology and fresh eyes lead to breakthrough in two of state’s 854 unsolved murders

New South Wales police have reopened active investigations into two of the state’s 854 unsolved murders as part of their response to a landmark inquiry that found they failed to properly investigate dozens of potential gay hate crimes over 40 years.

The two murders are being investigated while detectives look at a further 213 case files prioritised by a special unit of the state’s police force – Taskforce Atlas - which was launched to oversee the implementation of the gay hate crime inquiry’s recommendations.

Continue reading...

NSW government announces free weekend train travel in bid to avoid industrial action – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Australia “abstained with great disappointment” on the Palestinian-drafted resolution at the United Nations general assembly in New York early this morning, the Australian ambassador to the UN has said.

The resolution – which sought to act on a recent advisory opinion of the international court of justice – was passed with 124 votes in favour and 14 against. Australia was one of 43 countries to abstain, including the UK, Canada and Germany.

That is why we abstained with great disappointment.

We wanted to vote for a resolution that directly reflected the ICJ Advisory Opinion.

Continue reading...

NSW police bust alleged criminal network behind $1.8bn of Sydney cocaine sales this year

Police allege the criminal gang, dubbed The Commission, controlled the price of cocaine in Sydney by manipulating supply

A drugs gang dubbed “The Commission” linked to the distribution of more than $1.8bn worth of cocaine across Sydney in four months has been “uprooted” by police.

The New South Wales police operation began in July, when a 21-year-old man from Guildford in the city’s west was charged with with two counts of supplying a prohibited drug in a large commercial quantity.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Labor’s preliminary refusal of Pep11 gas project ‘an amazing step forward’, Scamps says; total fire ban announced for parts of NSW

Follow today’s news live

On the double-dissolution threat floated by Anthony Albanese yesterday, Sarah Hanson-Young says:

Again, why, why be so bullish about this? The Australian people don’t need a panicked prime minister who wants to press the exit button because he can’t get his own way.

They want a government that’s willing to work across the parliament. Now, a third of Australians voted for parties other than Labor or Liberal at the last election. And they did that because they want a parliament that works for them.

We want to fix it. We want to give the government the opportunity to fix it. I’m not just interested in saying no to things. I want to get outcomes. I guess that’s my concern.

This prime minister seems to have such a chip on his shoulder, doesn’t want to work with anyone. Just wants to do it all his way. I don’t think this is a very good sign for the future. Come on, come on, prime minister, you know, let’s put – put aside the politics and get on with getting some outcomes.

Continue reading...

Labor push for vote on help-to-buy bill delayed in Senate – as it happened

This blog is now closed

White House marks three years since signing of Aukus agreement

Happy three-year anniversary of the signing of Aukus, to those who observe.

Three years ago, President Biden and our Australian and United Kingdom partners committed to Aukus, an enhanced security partnership that promotes a free and open Indo-Pacific that is secure and stable.

As this partnership has grown, it has strengthened the security of our allies in the region as well as our own security here at home. Over the past three years, our countries have made significant strides in supporting Australia’s acquisition of a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.

That is bad news for Australian solar homes.

To create space for inflexible nuclear power plants ramming energy into the grid, millions of household solar systems will be the first casualty.

Solar power is already being switched off in South Australia when it makes so much free power available that it exceeds electricity demand.

Continue reading...

Nearly one in 10 NSW men have faced legal action for domestic and family violence, study finds

According to the research, the first of its kind in Australia, 1.2% of people born in the state were responsible for more than 50% of recorded offences

Nearly 10% of men in New South Wales have had police take some form of legal action against them for domestic and family violence, according to the first Australian population study of prevalence of offending, published on Monday.

The research published by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that 6.3% of people – 9.6% of men and 3% of women – born in NSW were found to have been proceeded against by police for a family and domestic violence offence by the age of 37.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Mixed bag for Labor and the rise of the Libertarians: the key surprises in the NSW local elections

ALP faces a variety of results in what premier Chris Minns calls a ‘massive wake-up call for the major parties’, and Liverpool mayor returns amid corruption inquiry

The counting of votes has resumed to determine the makeup of New South Wales’s 128 councils for the next four years.

The main story of the local government elections was the Liberal party’s disastrous failure to lodge the paperwork to nominate more than a third of its candidates.

Continue reading...

Canberra shivers through coldest September morning ever as south-east Australia records freezing temperatures

Capital’s weather falls to -6.9C on Monday while parts of inland NSW drop below zero and SA town has coldest September morning in more than 62 years

Much of Australia’s south-east shivered through freezing temperatures overnight, with another frosty morning forecast for Tuesday before temperatures warm back up.

Canberra marked its coldest September morning on record, reaching -6.9C on Monday. The previous September record of -6.8C was set 12 years ago in 2012.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Was Amber Haigh murdered? More than 20 years on, a judgment will be delivered

The nine-week trial of Robert and Anne Geeves, accused of killing teenager Amber Haigh in 2002, comes to an end on Monday

The enduring mystery of the disappearance of Amber Haigh faces a key reckoning Monday morning, with judgment in a trial for her murder.

Haigh, who had an intellectual disability, vanished without trace from the New South Wales Riverina in June 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

The rise of the Libertarians: ‘fringe’ party could win 15 NSW council seats after Liberals’ bungle

Minor party could be largest group on MidCoast council and state MP John Ruddick says ‘if you put in a development [application] we will approve it’

The Libertarian party could have up to 15 councillors across New South Wales and take control of a major regional council following the Liberal party’s failure to nominate more than 100 candidates for the weekend’s local government elections.

The NSW Liberal leader, Mark Speakman, said on Sunday his party had “performed strongly” where it had fielded candidates – despite 16 council areas either having no Liberal candidates or fewer than they were meant to.

Continue reading...

Woman killed by falling tree branch in Sydney as wild winds hit NSW coast

Meteorologist Gabrielle Woodhouse says dangerous conditions caused by low-pressure system offshore generating gale-force winds and large waves

A woman has died in New South Wales after a tree branch fell on her as strong winds hammered Sydney.

Emergency services were called to Castlereagh Street in Liverpool at about 1pm on Sunday after the woman was struck. Ambulance paramedics treated the woman at the scene but she could not be revived, NSW police said.

Continue reading...

Clover Moore claims historic sixth term as Sydney lord mayor

Longtime independent politician thanks community for support in face of misinformation and ‘awful’ campaign

Clover Moore has claimed a historic sixth term as the Sydney lord mayor despite a swing against her in a campaign she described as the “toughest” of her career.

The longtime independent secured another four years in the top job on Saturday evening, declaring victory in front of supporters at the Arthouse hotel in Sydney’s CBD.

Continue reading...