Category Archives: New South Wales

Australia news live: Wong ‘deeply concerned’ about escalation in Middle East; RBA interest rate decision due today

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Reserve bank’s two-day August meeting likely to leave key interest rate unchanged for a sixth straight gathering. Follow the day’s news live

Australia will join the US Global Entry program in 2025, creating an easier pathway for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who visit the country each year.

Eligible Australians who sign up for the program would benefit from streamlined and expedited immigration and customs clearance channels on arrival into the US, a statement from the foreign minister, Penny Wong, says.

Joining the Global Entry program is a mark of the closeness and the strength of the relationship between our two countries.

The foundation of the friendship between Australia and United States is the friendship between our people. This program will deepen these links and make it easier to foster greater commercial ties.

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NSW moves to outlaw asking tenants to pay for their own background checks on renter ‘blacklists’

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Minns government announces reforms to end practice of rental property platforms soliciting payments from applicants

Rental property application platforms would be prohibited from asking prospective tenants in New South Wales to pay for their own background checks under proposed new laws.

The Minns Labor government on Tuesday announced it would introduce the legislation after feedback from renters who said they were often told that paying these “optional charges” would increase their chance of securing a home.

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Senator gives evidence at defamation trial – as it happened

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For more on this, Daniel Hurst looked into the issue yesterday. A spokesperson for the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, had said the government was “firmly committed to minimising harms from online wagering”.

The government continues to engage with stakeholders regarding the recommendations from the online wagering inquiry as we formulate our response.

I hope that’s not the case. I hope the long consultation is because the government’s actually going to do the right thing and make gambling ads history, just like we did with tobacco. We live in hope it’s not too late, but the rumors are not encouraging.

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Police legally detained 15-year-old terror suspect in hotel without lawyers knowing location, solicitor says

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Ahmed Dib says legal team spent three days trying to find boy who was held with his mother in western Sydney

Asio and federal police officers legally detained a 15-year-old terror suspect in a hotel for multiple days without charge and without his lawyers being aware of his location, his solicitor alleges.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was one of seven people arrested by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team in the aftermath of the high-profile stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in April.

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‘A massive amount of drugs’: police in Sydney seize meth worth $828m allegedly hidden inside machinery

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Federal police charge 31-year-old man after drugs allegedly found in shipping container from US at Port Botany

An anonymous tipoff has allegedly led authorities to nearly $1bn worth of methamphetamine hidden in industrial machinery and destined for the Australian market.

Almost one tonne of the drug, commonly known as ice, was recovered from two large machines in a shipping container at Sydney’s Port Botany in July after being delivered from the US.

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Ex-Australia Post employee and friend plead guilty in Australian of the Year insider information betting scandal

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The men faced a Melbourne court after being charged following a three-year investigation by federal police into gambling on the annual awards

Two high school friends used insider information to bet on the winner of three Australian of the Year awards, and pocket thousands of dollars, a court has heard.

James Dawkins, 39, and 38-year-old Dean Young fronted Dandenong magistrates court in Melbourne on Thursday after details of their plan came to light.

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Police allege couple murdered Amber Haigh and used pigs to dispose of body, court hears

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Robert Geeves, who has pleaded not guilty, was accused of calling eight neighbours in just 90 minutes seeking permission to access their land, murder trial hears

Police accused Robert and Anne Geeves of murdering teenager Amber Haigh to take her baby and then disposing of her body by feeding it to pigs, the New South Wales supreme court has heard.

The seventh week of the Geeves murder trial heard extraordinary evidence about the arrest of Robert and Anne Geeves in May of 2022, two decades after Haigh disappeared without a trace.

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Two people found dead on yacht in Sydney Harbour amid concerns fumes detected aboard

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Bodies of a man and woman aged in their 50s or 60s found on 47ft yacht moored at Cammeray on Sydney’s north shore

Two people have been found dead on a yacht moored in Sydney’s north, amid concerns fumes were detected aboard.

The bodies of the man and woman were found on Wednesday night after emergency services conducted a welfare check at a mooring at Tunks Park, Cammeray, located on Sydney’s north shore.

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Amber Haigh’s crying baby was cuddled and consoled by Anne Geeves during police interview, court hears

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When detectives asked Anne Geeves, who has pleaded not guilty to her murder, if she had caused harm to missing teenage mother, she swore ‘on the baby’s grave’ she’d done nothing wrong

Within days of Amber Haigh going missing, police told Robert and Anne Geeves they were suspects, interrogating the couple in individual recorded interviews on the teenager’s last known movements.

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

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Couple accused of murdering Amber Haigh gave differing accounts of final car journey with her, court hears

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Robert and Anne Geeves gave inconsistent details to police about their alleged last trip with the 19-year-old

The married couple on trial for murdering Amber Haigh initially gave police investigators differing versions of their alleged final car journey with the teenager.

Haigh was 19 when she vanished without trace from the New South Wales Riverina in June 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.

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‘Spot something missing?’: NSW surfer jokes about leg that great white bit off

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Kai McKenzie was critically injured in the attack but on Monday posted a lighthearted photo of himself in hospital flanked by supporters

A young surfer whose leg was severed as he fought off a three-metre shark has joked about the loss of his limb less than a week after the devastating attack.

Kai McKenzie was rushed to hospital along with his leg when he was attacked at the isolated North Shore Beach, near Port Macquarie on the NSW mid-north coast, on Tuesday.

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Youth bail and anti-protest motion voted down at NSW Labor conference

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Critics argued laws were ‘rushed through parliament’ and will result in more Aboriginal children becoming incarcerated

A motion to repeal controversial youth bail and anti-protest laws in New South Wales was defeated at the state Labor conference on Sunday.

The motion was the first opportunity for the youth bail laws, passed by the state government earlier this year, to be debated amongst rank and file party members. The laws make it harder for reoffending 14- to 18-year-olds who commit serious break-and-enter or motor vehicle theft offences to get bail.

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Knife-wielding man shot dead by police in Sydney’s south-west

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The 34-year-old allegedly struck an officer with a knife in Middleton Grange before he was shot

A knife-wielding man has been shot dead in Sydney’s southwest after he allegedly attempted to stab a police officer, who narrowly avoided “catastrophic injuries”.

Emergency services were called to Bird Walton Avenue in Middleton Grange, about 40km from the CBD, about 11pm on Saturday following reports a man was armed with a knife.

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Australian surfer who lost leg in shark attack vows to be back in the water ‘in no time’

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Kai McKenzie, 23, expresses gratitude for outpouring of support in first public comments after attack by ‘biggest shark I’ve ever seen’

An Australian surfer whose leg was bitten off by a shark has promised he’ll be “back in that water in no time” as he recovers from surgery.

Kai McKenzie, 23, was surfing off North Shore beach on the mid-north coast of New South Wales on Tuesday morning when a suspected three-metre great white shark bit him.

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Immigration detainee charged over alleged drug ring operating from inside Villawood detention centre

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Police allege the man used an encrypted messaging service to deal drugs and coordinate a network of runners outside the Sydney facility

An immigration detainee and another man have been charged over an alleged drug ring operating from inside a detention facility.

Police say the 49-year-old dealt large amounts of methylamphetamine using an encrypted messaging service from Villawood immigration detention centre in Sydney’s west.

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NSW boys home grounds to be explored after possible ‘clandestine’ human burial sites revealed

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Government move to engage archaeological specialists comes after ‘suspicious’ locations identified at Kinchela Aboriginal institution

The New South Wales government will engage a specialist to explore the site of a notorious boys home where locations “consistent with clandestine human burials” have been found using ground-penetrating radar.

In September, Guardian Australia revealed there are at least nine “suspicious” sites of possible graves on the grounds of Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home, one of the most violent and abusive institutions of the stolen generations era.

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Labor seeks to avoid controversy over Palestine at NSW conference amid grassroots pressure

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Delegates expect event to pass only what insiders consider the ‘bare minimum’ on recognition motions

Senior Labor figures are attempting to prevent an outbreak of discontent at this weekend’s New South Wales state conference, with delegates expecting the event to pass only what insiders consider the “bare minimum” on recognition motions.

Despite strong pushes from Labor branches and grassroots members for a strong statement on the recognition of Palestine and sanctions on the Israeli government, sources say the party is focused on avoiding a show of disunity.

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NSW EPA investigates consultant accused of faking contamination reports on childcare centre sites

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More than 30 councils relied on reports during development approval process for 135 sites but EPA says no immediate risks to public health identified

An environmental consultant has been accused of falsifying laboratory sampling results in environmental reports that councils used when assessing 135 sites for development across New South Wales – including 24 childcare centres and a school.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority said on Friday it was investigating the allegations about Noel Child of N G Child & Associates and had begun visiting the affected childcare centres to “discuss the issues with the operators”.

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Ceasefire ‘needed desperately’, PM says in joint statement – as it happened

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Q: Will Malarndirri McCarthy, the assistant minister for Indigenous Australians, replace you?

Linda Burney said that was “way above [her] pay grade” but that McCarthy was a dear friend:

The most important thing is for me to support whoever it is in the role and to give them the space to be able to chart their own path … Aboriginal affairs is every minister’s responsibility, not just the minister for Indigenous Australians.

My job is to support that person as much as I can.

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Gladys Berejiklian loses legal challenge against Icac serious corrupt conduct finding

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Former NSW premier sought review of corruption watchdog decision that she failed to declare a personal conflict of interest regarding two government grants

The former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has lost her legal challenge against an anti-corruption watchdog finding that she engaged in “serious corrupt conduct”.

Berejiklian had argued the finding by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) was invalid because the commissioner was no longer at Icac when the findings were handed down.

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