Category Archives: New South Wales

‘Incident of extreme violence’ on Geeves property made child protection workers worried for Amber Haigh and her son, court hears

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Police files document that a former partner was found to have died from a gunshot wound on his property, court has heard

Child protection workers were worried about Amber Haigh and her newborn son because of an earlier “incident of extreme violence” that occurred at the home of the baby’s father when a woman was found tied up in a wheelbarrow with a bag on her head and dead from a gunshot wound, the New South Wales supreme court has heard.

Robert Geeves, who the court has heard fathered Amber Haigh’s child, is on trial for Haigh’s murder, alongside his wife, Anne Geeves.

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Snowfall possible in northern NSW as low pressure brings Antarctic blast to southern Australia

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BoM says most severe impacts expected on Sunday and Monday, with warnings of flash flooding in Tasmania

An intensifying low pressure system off Australia’s south-east is bringing frigid temperatures to large parts of the country’s south and a chance of snow as far as northern New South Wales.

The Bureau of Meteorology (Bom) was carefully monitoring the system on Saturday, which was expected to move from the NSW coast towards Tasmania, intensifying as it goes.

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How Sydney’s endless rain is ruining football seasons and breaking young hearts

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As Saturday after Saturday gets wiped out by bad weather, clubs are drowning in a sea of unplayed fixtures

The first thing Jamie Amendolia’s boys ask him when he picks them up from school every afternoon is the same: “Is training on? Is the game on? Has it been called off? Are we playing?”

Both of his sons, Sebastian, 10, and Alexander, eight, play football at Enfield FC in Sydney’s inner west. They’re footy fanatics. Except both have had their season thrown into chaos by the wet weather that has hit and bogged down Sydney’s weekends for months.

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Lucrative building contracts for Exclusive Brethren schools awarded to businesses run by church members

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Donations to school building funds are tax deductible, with Brethren-owned businesses across three states the beneficiaries

Schools set up by the Exclusive Brethren sect have spent millions of dollars with businesses owned by church members on major building projects, including to a company majority-owned by the powerful Hales family, a Guardian Australia investigation has found.

The Brethren’s OneSchool Global (OSG) schools are registered charities in Australia and exempt from income tax. The schools also have building funds endorsed for deductible gift recipient status.

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Australia news live: religious sect allegedly thought 8-year-old diabetic ‘should not use insulin’, court told; Alice Springs curfew won’t continue

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The curfew declaration will conclude at 12.55pm today, local time. Follow the day’s news live

The mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Paterson, spoke to ABC News Breakfast just earlier as authorities meet to determine whether a three-day curfew on the central Australian town will be extended.

He is “still waiting to hear” whether the curfew will be extended – a decision for the police commissioner. Asked whether he believes it should be extended, Paterson says:

It’s obviously worked in the CBD, but we are hearing that it is pushing crime out into the suburbs. So we’ll wait to see what happens. Ultimately, the community gets to have a breath while there’s extra resources and police in town, so we’ll just wait to see what’s decided …

The curfew is a reaction to events over the past week or so, and we can’t continue to put these in. We need to think about the long-term solutions.

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Father charged with three counts of murder after young children killed in Sydney house fire

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Man, 28, facing three domestic violence murder charges and five counts of attempted murder following weekend blaze at Lalor Park

A father has been charged with murder and attempted murder after three of his children died and four more were injured alongside their mother in a house fire in Sydney’s west.

The 28-year-old man was charged with three counts of domestic violence murder, five counts of attempted domestic violence murder and destroying or damaging property with intent to endanger life relating to domestic violence.

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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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Anger over delay to end of no-grounds evictions in NSW as renters face ‘perfect storm’

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Premier Chris Minns says government is still ‘grappling’ with issue that has already been outlawed in most states

The New South Wales government has been accused of failing renters by delaying legislation to end no-grounds evictions as demand for legal aid spikes across Sydney.

Despite both major parties pledging to abolish no-grounds evictions in the 2023 election, the government is yet to introduce legislation to implement the much-anticipated reforms.

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Greens and academics criticise appointment of antisemitism envoy – as it happened

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Flights have been cancelled or delayed out of Brisbane airport this morning as thick smoke blankets the city.

According to the Brisbane airport website, nine domestic flights and two international flights have been cancelled. On social media, the airport wrote that widespread fog across Brisbane was “slowing movements on ground and limiting visibility.”

Flights are still departing but there are delays due to the reduced visibility.

Participants will be able to check accessible scorecards that will show what services DES providers offer and how they rate for quality and effectiveness, helping them make an informed choice when selecting their provider.

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NSW premier hosing down greyhound racing ban before inquiry a ‘mockery’, Animal Justice MP says

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Emma Hurst blasts ‘absurd turn of events’ and calls for public reassurance after damning allegations dog deaths are higher than thought

The greyhound racing industry in New South Wales will face a government inquiry but not a ban after the resignation of the industry body’s chief executive and the release of a scathing report alleging welfare issues for the dogs.

The chief executive of Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW), Robert Macaulay, resigned after the report’s release on Tuesday in a decision his board described as “an amicable one, and one he felt was best for the industry at this time”.

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Hero neighbour ‘heartbroken’ about death of three children in Sydney fire

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Jarrod Hawkins crawled into the smoke-filled home to save the children from the Lalor Park house fire on Sunday

A heroic neighbour who helped rescue children from a deadly house fire says he’s heartbroken that three young kids died in the catastrophic blaze.

Three children aged six, three and 10 months were killed in the fire at Lalor Park, in Sydney’s west, early on Sunday.

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Man charged with murder over alleged DV-related stabbing death in Sydney’s west

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Twenty-one-year-old arrested in Penrith after woman found with two stab wounds to her chest at Kingswood on Monday

A man has been charged after the stabbing of a young woman in an alleged domestic violence-related murder in Sydney’s west.

The 21-year-old was arrested in Penrith and was due to face court on Tuesday, after the woman was found with two stab wounds to her chest.

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Amber Haigh showed cousin bruises on wrists she said were from being tied up by Robert Geeves, court hears

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Jackie Winn tells court she warned Haigh to stay away from Robert because of alleged previous incidents at his property

Amber Haigh told her cousin bruises across her wrists were injuries caused by being tied up by the father of her baby, the man now accused of her murder, a court has heard.

Haigh’s cousin testified she warned her “naive” relative to stay away from the man, Robert Geeves, because of his previous alleged incidents at his property. In one she said that she had heard, two girls were “kidnapped”, tied up and put in a silo. In another, a woman was allegedly fatally shot in the face.

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Blockade Australia climate activist sentenced to three months in jail over Port of Newcastle protest

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Laura Davy, who travelled from Tasmania to take part in a protest at a coal terminal, will appeal prison sentence

A 21-year-old woman who secured herself to a piece of machinery during a climate protest at a Newcastle coal terminal has been sentenced to three months in prison.

The climate protest, which is now in its 14th day and has involved daily actions, was organised by Blockade Australia to call for a change to the economic and political system to achieve meaningful climate action.

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Teenager felt ‘scared and anxious’ before alleged bucks party rape

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Trio of men, including the groom-to-be, are accused of raping three women at Airbnb in Newcastle in 2022. They have pleaded not guilty

Several men who allegedly engaged in group sex with teenage women during a bucks party weekend either knew they did not consent or were reckless to that fact, a jury has been told.

Maurice Hawell, 30, Marius Hawell, 22, and Andrew David, 30, are accused of committing sexual crimes against three teenagers at a rented Newcastle apartment in February 2022.

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Sydney house fire: three children dead, father in custody after alleged triple homicide

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Emergency services were called to a home in Lalor Park at 1am on Sunday

Three children are dead and their father is in custody after a house fire in Sydney’s west, in what police are treating as a domestic-related multiple homicide.

Emergency services were called to the home in Lalor Park at 1am on Sunday, which acting Supt Jason Pietruszka said was “engulfed by flames” on arrival.

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Two bodies found on beach at Little Bay in Sydney’s south

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Neither person formally identified as of Sunday afternoon, NSW police said in a statement

Two bodies have been found on a beach in Sydney’s south following a search and rescue operation.

Emergency services began searching Little Bay Beach at about 11.10am on Sunday morning after a member of the public found personal items unattended on the shore, and called police.

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Amber Haigh forced to change locks on flat after alleged killer broke in, court told

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Counsellor tells court she took file notes that Haigh expressed concerns for her own safety and the future safety of her baby

Disappeared teenager Amber Haigh feared losing her baby to the man now accused of her murder, and was forced to change the locks on her apartment when he broke in to steal the infant’s cot, a court has heard.

Haigh was a 19-year-old mother when she vanished from the New South Wales Riverina in July 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.

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Dutton says ‘Australia can learn’ from new British PM’s nuclear stance – as it happened

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‘Pretty clear’ Fatima Payman has been planning to join crossbench for a ‘long period’, minister says

The finance minister and manager of the government in the Senate, Katy Gallagher, is speaking with ABC RN after Fatima Payman’s resignation yesterday.

It’s difficult to go into, you know, when the decision was made – only Senator Payman knows that – but we do know, now that it’s been done, it’s a matter of fact that there had been obviously discussions about her role as an independent senator and for some time.

I think the way these decisions have been made by Senator Payman make it pretty clear that she has been thinking about this for a long period of time, and it was executed this week …

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Senator says PM’s office planted seed about crossing floor – as it happened

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Josh Burns says Labor motion to recognise Palestine as part of the peace process is ‘the bare minimum’

Josh Burns finished with:

This motion before the House is the bare minimum. It says that we support the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process. That peace process is something that I hold onto and that I have held onto my entire life.

That peace process says that we are all people, above all, and that there has to be a way through this. There has to be a way through this conflict. I wish that we could pull a lever here in Australia and it would all end today, but we have seen time and time again that that is not the case.

There are so many intractable parts of this conflict. I have a degree in this conflict, and I still don’t quite know how to fix it.

I know that there are players who are desperate to end the peace process and to try and disturb any efforts towards peace. I know that trees take years and years and years to grow and can be cut down in a second, and that is what the Middle East has demonstrated over and over again.

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NSW greyhound racing board could be sacked after minister issues ‘show cause’ notice

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Greyhound Racing NSW allegedly breached licence that stipulates it must immediately disclose anything that brings industry into disrepute

The New South Wales minister responsible for greyhound racing has threatened to sack the industry’s governing board over its alleged failure to properly manage a series of complaints over how it operates and other matters.

Guardian Australia understands the racing minister, David Harris, issued a show cause notice to the Greyhound Racing NSW board on the grounds it had breached the terms of its operating licence, as the sector faces criticism over rising dog injuries and its adoption programs.

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