Category Archives: New South Wales

Fatima Payman admits she ‘upset a few colleagues’ by crossing the floor – as it happened

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Housing minister Julie Collins is speaking to the ABC RN about Labor’s build-to-rent bill which was knocked back in the Senate yesterday, with the Greens and the Coalition combining to delay it:

What we want to do is get this done. We’ve already been consulting, we announced it in the previous budget. Any delays will actually stop the pipeline of construction and the certainty for the sector.

What we want to do is get more affordable homes and more homes of every type on the ground as quickly as we can.

We’re saying they have to have a minimum of 10% to be eligible for the tax concessions that we’re talking about for each development.

That’s what our consultations and our discussions with the sector have done and, as I said, this is not the only thing we’re doing for affordable homes … My point here is that they continually delay and block housing up every time by coming together and having this unholy alliance between the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate, because they’re more interested in votes than they are about people.

We’re not open to negotiation and we want to get this done.

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Woman allegedly murdered by housemate in inner-west Sydney home identified

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A 42-year-old man has been denied bail after being charged with the murder in Russell Lea

The woman allegedly murdered by her housemate in Sydney’s inner west has been identified as 53-year-old Annette Kiss.

Benjamin Scott Art, 42, has been charged with murder, after the body of a woman was found at a home on Clements St in Russell Lea on Thursday.

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More than 130 patients in NSW died through voluntary assisted dying in program’s first three months

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Between the state legalising VAD in November 2023 and February 2024, 517 patients made requests to access it, official report shows

More than 130 patients have died through New South Wales’s voluntary assisted dying program in the first three months since it was legalised.

NSW became the last state in Australia to legalise voluntary assisted dying when new legislation came into effect in November.

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Teenager charged with planning terrorist attack after allegedly entering NSW MP’s office with ‘intention to kill’

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Labor MP for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp said he and his staff were safe and unharmed after the ‘very serious incident’

A New South Wales teenager has been charged with planning a terrorist attack after he allegedly entered Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp’s office carrying items including “knives and tactical equipment” with the “intention to kill”.

Jordan Patten, a 19-year-old from Raymond Terrace, was arrested in Newcastle after midday on Wednesday and was charged with one count of preparing or planning a terrorist act.

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Shorten says NDIS ‘too important for political games’ after bill blocked – as it happened

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Wong rejects Birmingham’s criticism, says US alliance ‘deep and strong’

Asked about her Liberal counterpart Simon Birmingham’s criticism of Anthony Albanese’s phone call with Julian Assange and his claims that the deal to release Assange has “damaged” the US-Australian alliance, Penny Wong says:

That’s not not correct and disappointing that Simon would go to the alliance. He would know that our relationship with the United States is deep and strong.

And that is why we were able to advocate in the way we did. And ultimately, the pathway to resolving this, … had to be through the resolution of the legal process.

Dr Yang remains a priority for our government. We continue to raise his case with the Chinese authorities at all appropriate levels and we will continue to do so. It was obviously raised, as you know, when Premier Li was here.

What I would say is today I am very pleased to see Mr Assange reunited with his family in Australia.

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Molly Ticehurst’s family dealt another cruel blow after thieves steal ‘final tie we had with our girl’

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Exclusive: Forbes woman’s home robbed of precious mementoes just days after she was allegedly murdered

Molly Ticehurst’s family has been dealt another cruel blow, with thieves stealing precious and irreplaceable items from her home just days after she was allegedly murdered.

Among the items taken from the Forbes property where Molly, 28, lived with her six-year-old son was a gold nugget pendant given to her by her father, Tony Ticehurst, who picked the piece because it looked like a woman holding a child.

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NSW government accused by critics of using ‘fatally compromised’ emissions report

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Climate campaigners and scientists disturbed over claims about global warming found in document obtained through Gipa laws

The New South Wales government is facing criticism over a review of how to cut emissions from coalmines that claims the goal of limiting global heating to well below 2C will not be met – a position at odds with the state’s laws and policies.

Climate campaigners and scientists said the claim in the report, prepared for the planning department, is inconsistent with state legislation that commits to pursuing efforts to limit temperature increases to 1.5C.

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Australia politics live: Plibersek says protecting koala habitat one of the conditions for approving Rinehart-backed gas project

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The Queensland government plans to establish a new greater glider forest park as part of a $200m plan to reform the state’s timber industry.

The premier, Steven Miles, will today announce he will ban logging in between 50,000 and 60,000 hectares of high value ecosystem within the Eastern Hardwoods region in Wide Bay, north of Brisbane.

In addition, a new park to protect the greater glider will be established in the south-east Queensland bioregion.

The state government will also appoint an advisory group to develop a 30-year plan for the sector. It will include representatives from the timber industry, forestry experts, the conservation sector, First Nations peoples, the Australian Workers’ Union, construction sector and outdoor recreational groups.

Queensland’s timber industry is the backbone of the housing and building sectors.

That’s why I’m doing what matters to support timber workers and the industry to continue building our state, while also increasing our protected area estate.

The terms of reference released today map out our priorities as a government – that is, timber supply security, environmental protections, jobs and diverse employment opportunities.

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Australia’s first high-speed rail link could ease house prices and widen the dating pool, UK expert says

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Prof Andrew McNaughton also warns plan to build Sydney-Newcastle route is ‘doomed’ to fail unless a shorter stretch to Gosford comes first

Ensuring Australia’s decades-long high-speed rail project maintains enough support to be built requires the public to be constantly reminded of its benefits, such as easing property prices, providing better job opportunities and even widening the dating pool, a British expert has urged.

Prof Andrew McNaughton, the chair of the UK’s Network Rail High Speed, also warns that the Albanese government’s push to build high-speed rail along Australia’s east coast, starting with a Sydney-Newcastle section, is “doomed” to fail unless planners split the first stage into an even smaller, achievable stretch to Gosford.

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City of Sydney could tear up contracts with suppliers targeted by boycott Israel campaign

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Mayor Clover Moore says procurement and investment should be examined to potentially ‘put additional pressure towards a ceasefire’ in Gaza

The City of Sydney will consider tearing up contracts with suppliers targeted by the boycott Israel campaign, in a move the lord mayor, Clover Moore, hopes could “put additional pressure towards a ceasefire and an end to the humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.

On Monday night, Moore backed a Greens motion for the council to prepare a report on the council’s investment policy regarding “companies involved in, or profiting from, any human rights violations including the illegal occupation of the settlements in Palestinian territories and the supply of weapons”.

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Australia politics live: Julian Assange leaves Belmarsh prison after plea deal and will return to Australia, WikiLeaks says

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WikiLeaks X account has tweeted that ‘Julian Assange is free’. Follow today’s news headlines live

‘It’s just a lazy delay’

Bill Shorten says a further delay of the Senate vote on the NDIS bill won’t actually lead to any changes:

There’s no good reason on God’s green earth to have another eight weeks of review, which isn’t actually eight weeks.

There won’t be a whole lot of new submissions come in, there won’t be some brand new arguments not considered.

I’m horrified after 12 months of reviewing the NDIS and then another six months of discussing the review including [in] the last three a Senate committee having public hearings calling for submissions.

The opposition has used words never ever said before by them.

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Coldest start to winter in decades in some areas with polar air mass predicted across Australia next week

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Many parts of Victoria, NSW and Queensland have shivered through temperatures between 2C and 5C below average, the BoM says

It has been the coldest start to winter in decades for parts of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and temperatures are expected to remain cooler with a polar air mass predicted to sweep through the entire country in the coming week.

Dean Narramore, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said many parts of south-eastern Australia experienced temperatures in the past week between 2C and 5C below average for winter.

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Missing teen Amber Haigh was ‘removed from the equation’ after giving birth, court told

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Husband and wife plead not guilty before prosecution lays out case in NSW murder trial after 2002 disappearance

A couple from country New South Wales used the intellectually disabled teenager Amber Michelle Haigh as a “surrogate mother” so they could have another baby, before they killed her, a court has heard.

Robert and Anne Geeves, now of Harden, face one count each of murder over the suspected killing of Haigh, who disappeared without trace in June of 2002. On the opening day of the trial, the court heard how the couple had deliberately tried to “plant the seed” Haigh was suicidal, and they had set out to have her “removed from the equation”.

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Tributes for victim of fatal alleged road rage incident in Sydney as man charged

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NSW police allege ‘words were said’ before Rhyce Harding, 27, was killed in an alleged hit-and-run at Blackett

A man has been charged over an alleged road rage incident that police allege saw another man dragged 100 metres down a street before dying at the scene.

Rhyce Harding, 27, was allegedly hit by a white ute after getting out of his car in Sydney’s west, police said.

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Shadow energy minister says system in ‘dire trouble’ – as it happened

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Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.

We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.

We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.

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‘Woke mumbo jumbo’: Sydney barrister says he will lobby King of Tonga in fight against Newington College coed shift

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Exclusive: Dallas Morgan sends impassioned email to old boys updating them on ‘embarrassing saga’ and telling them to ‘never give up’

A Sydney barrister and Newington College old boy leading the fight against the private school’s coed shift has sent an impassioned email to alumni, detailing his plans to fly to Tonga this week to lobby King Tupou VI on the issue.

In his email, Dallas Morgan also lamented that “transgender midgets” could have their fees subsidised and said he hoped the king – whose father is also a fellow former student of the school – would oppose the coed transition.

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Australia news live: Indigenous leader Rev Dr D Gondarra dies; mass cull ordered to stop NSW bird flu outbreak

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Albanese calls Coalition nuclear policy a ‘fantasy’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has slammed the Coalition’s nuclear power policy, calling it a “fantasy” and saying it was “Peter Dutton and the Seven nuclear reactors.”

What you have here is something that I’ve never seen before. I mean, this is just a fantasy, instead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this is Peter Dutton and the seven nuclear reactors.

This is just absurd, to have a big buildup for an announcement and then say we won’t give you the details. I’ll make this prediction. All the details won’t be out there before the election. It will be just “trust me”, just the same as Peter Dutton said that [for the] 2030 target when it comes to emissions reduction, “I will let you know all of that after the election.”

Well, our energy policy will and is absolutely focused on driving down prices as we did in government at … this is the important point. And that is because of a range of technologies, not one, nuclear needs to be part of that mix. You need to have every horse in this race. This is a hard race to win. And we want to have every horse in the race. Nuclear is an important one, gas is an important one.

Everyone wants to sort of say there’s one technology this the answer to everything. No. I’m just wondering. It’s a balance of technologies and right now, what is clear is Chris Bowen’s strategy is not getting us to where we need to go.

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Australia news live: Dutton announces Coalition’s nuclear policy and proposed sites, but no costs

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Sites named at Collie, Mt Piper, Callide, Tarong, Liddell, Northern energy in South Australia and Loy Yang. Follow the day’s news live

Sussan Ley says Coalition nuclear policy will be a ‘sensible proposition’

I just wanted to return to Sussan Ley’s appearance on Sky News this morning, where she was asked how a potential future Coalition nuclear policy would circumvent nuclear bans:

We’ll work through all that. We have a sensible proposition to put to the Australian people and I know that when we talk about nuclear people are starting to tune in, understanding that if 19 of the 20 biggest economies in the world are using nuclear, if it makes sense for cleaner baseload power, because it’s zero emissions, if it helps us get to 2050 net zero, if it does all of the things that we want it to do in terms of emissions, and in terms of securing affordable cheaper power for Australians … why would people not consider it? And I believe they will.

Now, the government says it’s renewables only. We can see that that’s actually not going to happen. The government talks about hydrogen, it’s not at scale. It’s not even something they can demonstrate works in that short timeframe and they talk about batteries that aren’t going to provide the storage for their renewables.

So, they are in a complete mess over this, and they need to be put on the sticky paper and asked what they are going to do for families, households and manufacturing businesses.

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Charlise Mutten trial: Justin Stein found guilty of murdering partner’s nine-year-old daughter

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Jury finds 33-year-old drugged and fatally shot Mutten in the Blue Mountains in January 2022

Justin Stein has been found guilty of the murder of his then-partner’s nine-year-old daughter Charlise Mutten.

Charlise’s body was found dumped by the Colo River, north-west of Sydney, four days after she was reported missing, with gunshot wounds to her head and lower back.

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RBA governor says inflation still above target; Matt Kean to retire from politics – as it happened

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Liberals criticise treatment of journalist by Chinese officials at press conference

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham has condemned the treatment of journalist Cheng Lei at federal parliament yesterday.

This was an entirely counterproductive and inappropriate act by Chinese officials that should have been called out by our prime minister and government officials.

It is a reminder that we have two very different systems, the Chinese system and the Australian system, different systems of government, of course as a democracy, different respect when it comes to media, to freedom of speech, but this visit is taking place in Australia.

It is concerning, I think a lot of this comes from so many Australians genuinely doing a tough at the moment, having to make really tough decisions, from telling their kids that they can no longer play basketball or be part of the scouts group because they can’t afford the … 500 bucks a year that costs, to other Australians who are deciding between going to see the GP or fulfilling a script and putting food on the table.

People are doing it tough and so when they hear politicians talk about these targets in the future … I think Peter Dutton use this to whip up fear.

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