NSW hit by magnitude 4.8 earthquake felt as far south as Canberra

More than 2,000 people reported feeling the quake, which struck 120km northwest of Newcastle, causing windows to blow in and a chimney to topple

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake has hit New South Wales, causing windows to smash and a chimney to fall over.

The quake – revised down from a magnitude 5 – hit Denman, 120km northwest of Newcastle in the upper Hunter region. It struck at 12.02pm on Friday, with a depth of 10km, and is the largest to hit the area in 20 years.

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SafeWork NSW investigating Swillhouse hospitality group after staff allege harassment and discrimination

High-profile Sydney bar and restaurant group issues public apology as award-winning bartender comes forward alleging workplace sexual assault

SafeWork NSW is investigating high profile Sydney bar and restaurant group Swillhouse after a series of allegations by staff of harassment, discrimination and unsafe workplaces.

A Sydney Morning Herald investigation this week alleged staff had experienced sexual assault and harassment and drug use within the group’s venues. A former Australian bartender of the year who worked for Swillhouse has publicly come forward as an alleged victim of sexual assault while working at the hospitality group.

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Humpback whale in Sydney Harbour freed from rope entanglement in hours-long rescue

Operation to free young animal from ropes and buoys conducted ‘very carefully’

A humpback whale has been freed after being entangled in ropes in Sydney Harbour.

Jessica Fox, the second vice-president of volunteer organisation Orrca, confirmed the rescue late on Friday morning.

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NDIS deal passes both houses – as it happened

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Queensland Labor’s longest-serving state MP to retire

Queensland Labor’s longest-serving state MP has announced he will retire at October’s election.

Curtis Pitt is the last survivor of the “Tarago opposition”, the seven ALP MPs elected at the 2012 wipeout election.

The party won government back in 2015, after just one term.

In a Facebook post on Thursday morning, he announced his retirement after 15 years in politics.

It’s not a decision I’ve come to lightly. I’ve always said that the day I wake up and don’t feel I can give it 100 per cent, then it’s time for me to do something else.

When I think back, all of my kids have been born since I’ve been an MP. Having been a member of parliament for five terms, I know that I’ve missed so many important milestones and occasions.

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When globally famous gay penguin Sphen died in Sydney, his partner began to sing

Zoo staff brought Magic to Sphen’s side to process the loss, and the penguin colony joined in his mournful call

Sydney gentoo penguin Sphen, whose same-sex love story made him and partner Magic an equality symbol worldwide, has died.

The couple shot to fame in 2018 when news of their same-sex male relationship in a Sydney aquarium made global headlines.

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NSW inquiry into death of Indigenous man shot while fleeing custody calls for urgent review of gun laws

Mother of Dwayne Johnstone urges government ministers to ‘take note’ of coroner’s recommendation ‘so no one else has to go through it’

The death of an unarmed Indigenous man who was shot while fleeing custody has prompted a coroner to recommend an urgent review of laws governing the use of firearms by correctional officers.

Dwayne Johnstone, a 43-year-old Wiradjuri man, was shot dead outside Lismore Base hospital as he ran in leg shackles and handcuffs from a prison van after receiving medical treatment on 15 March 2019.

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Australia politics live: Coalition to reveal cost of nuclear plan ‘in good time’, Angus Taylor says; misbehaving MPs face fines under new standards commission

The government will introduce legislation today which includes penalties for MPs and parliament house staff who have been found to have committed wrong doing. Follow the day’s news live

Gambling ads ‘an issue of morality’: Sharkie

As Paul Karp reported yesterday, the independent MP Rebekha Sharkie is one of the MPs pushing for the major parties to be allowed a conscience vote on the forthcoming Labor gambling legislation.

The Murphy report called for a full ban. That’s the expectation of many members of parliament, both the opposition and government said and the crossbench, but many have said to me that they’re wrestling with their conscience on the idea that there would only be a partial ban and many people see this issue closely tied to their faith, an issue of morality.

So it would appear to me and also to Andrew Wilkie that, you know, a straightforward position would be to allow a conscience vote and in my time in the Parliament, we’ve had four conscience votes. I think it would naturally fit for the parameters an issue that sits within their soul.

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Man’s body found in creek after multiple shootings in western Sydney

Police found the body of a man in a creek in Auburn early on Wednesday morning

A man’s body has been found by police investigating multiple shootings in western Sydney which police believe to be connected.

Emergency services were called to Antwerp Street, Auburn, shortly before 10pm on Tuesday, after reports shots had been fired into a home during a domestic incident, New South Wales police said in a statement.

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NSW police had emails that could have saved lives at Wieambilla, inquest hears

Queensland police weren’t warned of threats to law enforcement made by Trains before shooting, hearing told

Queensland police weren’t warned of emails threatening law enforcement sent by the perpetrators of the Wieambilla shooting because the New South Wales officer who asked them to attend the remote rural property didn’t read the emails until it was too late, an inquest has heard.

Detective Senior Constable Tim Montgomery, who testified on day 14 of an inquest by the Queensland state coroner Terry Ryan into the Wieambilla shootings, was assigned with tracking down Nathaniel Train.

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Coalition senators split in voting on Ralph Babet motion on abortion – as it happened

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Murray Watt on visas: ‘We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition’

The opposition has continued its political attacks against visas being given to Palestinians from Gaza (before Israel seized and completely closed the Rafah border in May).

We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition when they were in power and when Peter Dutton was the minister. Mike Burgess, the director general of Asio, has confirmed that himself.

Peter Dutton was quite prepared to use certain processes when he was the minister. Now we’re in power, he wants to criticise that. He wants to find division, to find reasons for criticism and be negative of the government.

I think this is just a ridiculous example he’s [Adam Bandt] giving, to disguise the fact yesterday the Greens were the only party in the parliament who decided to side with John Setka … rather than taking the side of the Australian people.

We had a vote in the Parliament yesterday, in the Senate, that called on the Greens to say they wouldn’t take political donations from the CFMEU construction division, they refused to vote for that. So I think it’s pretty clear what the motivation here is in voting against this legislation.

We haven’t received a dollar from the CFMEU for a decade, the Coalition received $175,000 in the last two years, Labor has received millions of dollars and what we say is we have not received the money, it is not why we are engaged in the debate.

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Former NSW Coalition government was warned recycled soil products posed ‘unacceptable risks’

Exclusive: Environment watchdog advised in 2021 the material ‘should not be used broadly’, before backing away from proposals to tighten regulations

The New South Wales environment watchdog warned the former Coalition state government that a widely used recycled landscaping product posed “potential unacceptable risks to the environment and the community”.

Guardian Australia revealed in January that the Environment Protection Authority had known for more than a decade that producers of soil fill made from construction and demolition waste – known as recovered fines – were failing to comply with rules to limit the spread of contaminants.

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Sydney Metro welcomes commuters aboard new underground city section

The highly anticipated Chatswood to Sydenham extension will drastically cut travel times in Sydney

Tens of thousands of commuters have begun riding on the Sydney Metro’s city section on Monday morning as the first new train line running underneath the city centre in more than four decades opened to the public.

The first metro train service on the new section left Sydenham at 4.54am, travelling the newly opened stretch of the extension under Sydney harbour to reach Chatswood station by 5.16am, where it continued on to Tallawong on the original north-west line that opened in 2019.

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Man knocked out by whale tail whack while in small boat off Gold Coast

Queensland police say the man remained in his tinny after the whale hit him in waters near Coolangatta

A man has suffered serious injuries after being struck by a whale while in a tinny in waters near the border of Queensland and New South Wales.

Jetski riders off the coast of Coolangatta called emergency services just before 9am on Sunday when a whale reportedly collided with the man in his boat.

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NSW Liberals accuse electoral commission of breaking rules after council nomination debacle

Party threatens legal action against NSW electoral commission after requests for deadline extension rejected

The New South Wales Liberal party has accused the state’s electoral commission of breaching regulations and says it will be left with “no other option” than to take legal action if it isn’t given more time to nominate all its council candidates.

But the acting electoral commissioner, Matthew Phillips, on Sunday rejected the party’s second request for an extension. He said he did not consider it a “realistic possibility” that Liberal HQ could have been unaware of the nomination deadline, and added it would “not be appropriate” to change the election process.

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‘Butchered so barbarically’: heartbreak turns to anger about killing of rays at popular Sydney diving spot

Divers demand end to fishing of rays after mutilated carcasses discovered at Chowder Bay on Sydney’s north shore

Jayne Jenkins found the sandy floor of Chowder Bay on Sydney Harbour a mess of fishing lines, hooks and ray carcass, last Saturday morning.

Fins had been chopped from two bull rays, the diver told Guardian Australia. One had a big split across its head – Jenkins identified it as Stumpy, a well known ray that had its tail chopped off in previous years.

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NSW Liberal party demands extension after missing council elections deadline in ‘monumental stuff-up’

State’s electoral commission receives request from NSW Liberal president after party failed to lodge nominations for more than 130 council candidates

The New South Wales Liberal party has demanded a week-long extension to lodge nominations for more than 130 council candidates after the party missed the deadline in a “monumental stuff-up”.

The NSW Liberal party president, Don Harwin, sent a letter to the NSW electoral commission overnight after the party’s head office missed the Wednesday noon deadline to lodge the necessary paperwork to nominate all of its candidates for the local government elections on 14 September.

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NSW councillor Nathan Tilbury all smiles after leaving Liberal party days before nomination fiasco

Independent now has ‘surprise’ backing of Liberal elder statesman and departing Hornsby mayor Philip Ruddock

While many of his former colleagues were furious this week, local councillor Nathan Tilbury has been feeling pretty happy as a former Liberal.

Two days before the party failed to nominate more than 130 candidates for next month’s New South Wales local government elections, Tilbury handed in his resignation.

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Australia news live: Palaszczuk appointed to Australia Post board; Shorten says Dutton ‘implying all Gazans are terrorists’

Palaszczuk, who retired from politics in December after almost nine years as QLD premier, will serve a three-year term as a non-executive director. Follow today’s news headlines live

‘We have to have a constant reminder’

The committee also called for a culturally appropriate and nationally significant recognition and remembrance of murdered and disappeared First Nations women and children. Dorinda Cox said this would be “significant” if the government accepted the recommendation:

It would … have some permanent features to remind us the role that history has played for missing and murdered or disappeared women and children and First Nations women and children in this country, because there’s a story there that needs to be told, and we have to have a constant reminder.

Like we do … with the Australian war memorial of the safety that we have as a country, but also that this part of our history – this is now ingrained in and sketched into. And if we want to continue to work on this and continue to maintain safety for women and children and the most vulnerable, which is First Nations – as we know, we’re in an emergency for all women, but First Nations women and children are at the front of that – we have to have some permanent features, otherwise we become invisible.

What we hear too often is that this is a state and territory problem. States are responsible for their police forces, in particular … We have to centre our approaches and our outcomes in [addressing these issues] and we have to look at the culture of the organisations, such as police.

There’s lots of reporting on the media in relation to the attitudes of police across Australia, and that has to get better, but we have to have a measure against that – we can’t just put in the attorney general [to] have a chat to the police ministers, and nothing changes … Because if we don’t look at this in a way of wanting change, nothing ever changes.

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Husband charged with cold-case murder of Denise Govendir in Sydney in 1998

Aaron Govendir originally told police his Dover Heights home had been broken into and he was knocked unconscious, but police have new allegations on wife’s cold-case killing

Twenty-six years ago, Aaron Govendir told police his home had been broken into and he was knocked unconscious before his wife was bludgeoned to death.

But detectives allege the story was a lie and the now-elderly man murdered his wife Denise before staging an apparent car theft in a bid to cover up his crime.

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In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

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‘Mind-boggling’ nomination failure sparks sacking of NSW Liberal party state director Richard Shields

Administrative bungle leaves party without a senior leader, four weeks out from statewide elections

The New South Wales Liberals director Richard Shields has been sacked after a “mind-boggling” failure to nominate more than 130 candidates for local government elections.

In a statement issued after an emergency meeting late on Thursday night, the party’s state president, Don Harwin, said its executive had unanimously decided to terminate Shields’ employment over the fiasco.

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