Category Archives: New South Wales

Man found dead in Queensland flood water as weather systems collide over eastern Australia

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Man, 71, found near vehicle in Logan as NSW and Qld residents warned to prepare for up to 200mm of rain, thunderstorms and flash flooding

A man has been found dead near his vehicle in Queensland floodwaters as storms bring heavy rain to eastern Australia.

Police found the 71-year-old man at 5.20am on Thursday, after being called to the Logan suburb of Greenbank to conduct a welfare check.

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Mercury pollution at Eraring power plant rose 130% in 12 months

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Environment groups say increased pollution levels means it would be ‘absurd and harmful’ to extend life of Eraring, which is due to close in August 2025

Mercury and particulate pollution from Australia’s largest coal-fired power station soared last year, prompting an environmental group to argue it would be “absurd and harmful” for the New South Wales government to extend its operations.

Origin Energy’s 2,880-megawatt Eraring power station, slated by the company to close in August 2025, reported mercury pollution jumped 130% in 2022-23 compared with the previous year, according to data from the national pollution inventory. The heavy metal permanently damages brains and kidneys, especially those of children.

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Measles alert for Sydney as experts call for improvement in indoor air quality

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Health authorities also warn RSV, flu and whooping cough cases on the rise around Australia

A measles alert was issued for Sydney on Sunday and other airborne illnesses are on the rise, while Australia’s Covid load is relatively low after the summer’s surge of the JN.1 variant.

New South Wales Health issued an alert on Sunday morning after a woman caught measles from a child who had been diagnosed days earlier.

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How do Australian police taskforces get strange names like Tromperie?

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In NSW, you can blame a computer which generates names at random, while in the Northern Territory ‘generic categories’ deliver operations named after rivers and battleships

New South Wales police last week arrested 15 people as part of Strikeforce Wessex – an investigation into alleged organised criminal networks operating “dial-a-dealer” schemes.

But what does Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Great Britain, have to do with drug dealing and mobile phones across Sydney?

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NSW police commissioner backflips on appointment of Steve Jackson as new media adviser

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Decision announced on eve of Easter long weekend following weeks of controversy over Jackson’s former work as a journalist

The New South Wales police commissioner, Karen Webb, has backflipped on her decision to appoint former Network Seven producer Steve Jackson as her media adviser.

Questions about the appointment were raised last week when images of Jackson, who produced Seven’s Spotlight interview with Bruce Lehrmann, began circulating in the media industry in Sydney. Seven paid more than $100,000 in rent for the former Liberal staffer in return for the exclusive interview.

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NSW may be forced to pay $150m a year to extend life of coal-fired plant, energy expert predicts

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‘If ever there was a perfect case-study of the negative impacts on taxpayers of privatisation of strategic public assets, Eraring is it’, Tim Buckley says

New South Wales may end up paying $150m a year to subsidise the extension of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power plant, money better spent accelerating the take-up of rooftop solar with storage, Tim Buckley, an energy analyst said.

It comes as the Labor government will on Thursday announce $1bn for solar panel manufacturing in Australia, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, travelling to the Hunter region to spruik the government’s new Net Zero Economy Authority.

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Frank Zumbo used power to lure young women into ‘world of his own design’, court told

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Former aide to Craig Kelly found guilty of sex crimes against four victims aged between 19 and 24 at time of offending

An aide to the former federal MP Craig Kelly used his position to lure powerless young women who he would go on to sexually touch and assault over a period of years, a court has been told.

Frank Zumbo pressured the women, who were looking to further their careers, into “kisses and cuddles”, touching them inappropriately and exposing himself to one victim.

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Reported plan to move Rosehill racecourse to endangered bell frog habitat surprises conservationists

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Horse racing industry insiders said to be pushing for Sydney track to be relocated to former brickpit in Olympic Park – a sanctuary to an unlikely urban survivor

Conservations have expressed surprise at reported plans to move Sydney’s Rosehill racecourse to a historic brickpit at Olympic Park, which is home to a colony of endangered green and golden bell frogs.

The plan has reportedly been devised by racing bosses, alongside the deal between the Australian Turf Club and the New South Wales government to redevelop the famous track into new housing, as well as two additional metro stations.

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NSW police officers at pro-Palestine rally allegedly wore badges associated with rightwing extremism

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Legal Observers NSW says ‘several officers’ at Port Botany protest – where 19 people were arrested – wore thin blue line patch on uniform

At least one New South Wales police officer wore a “thin blue line” badge – which has been co-opted by far right and extremist groups – when working at a pro-Palestine protest at Port Botany, according to Legal Observers NSW.

Guardian Australia has seen a photograph of one officer wearing the badge on Sunday night and observers who attended the protest said “several” other officers also wore the patch showing a black-and-white Australian flag with a blue line running across it.

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NSW police commissioner says appointment of media adviser under review after new information received

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Karen Webb says checks still under way in the appointment of Channel Seven journalist Steve Jackson to the role of police media adviser

The New South Wales police commissioner, Karen Webb, has revealed the appointment of a new police media adviser is under review after she received new information about the candidate.

A spokesperson for NSW police told Guardian Australia the review of the appointment of the Channel Seven and News Corp journalist Steve Jackson to the $320,000-a-year role “remains ongoing”.

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Peter Dutton in standoff with state Liberal leaders over federal Coalition’s nuclear plan

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The federal opposition leader’s calls to include nuclear power in Australia’s energy mix has so far failed to win support from his state colleagues

The federal Coalition faces a battle with the states on its proposal for nuclear power stations at the sites of decommissioned coal power plants, with state premiers and opposition leaders alike largely against Peter Dutton’s proposal.

Labor governments and Coalition oppositions in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are either outright opposed to the plan or have failed to endorse it.

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William Tyrrell’s former foster parents found guilty of intimidating different child

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Magistrate clears couple of other domestic violence allegations in hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre

William Tyrrell’s former foster parents have been found guilty of intimidating another child in their care, but cleared of a slew of other domestic violence allegations.

In a hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre on Friday, magistrate Susan McIntyre found the former foster mother – who cannot be legally identified – guilty of intimidating the child on two occasions, including threatening to slap them.

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Israel must allow humanitarian relief to reach Gaza, Australia and UK say in new joint statement – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

As part of the latest Aukus developments, Australia will send A$4.6bn to the UK to clear bottlenecks at the Rolls-Royce nuclear reactor production line.

Richard Marles was asked why it costs so much, and why this component needs to be done in the UK. He told ABC News Breakfast:

We made clear a year ago that we wouldn’t be building the nuclear reactors in Australia. They will be built by Rolls Royce at its facility in Derby in the UK and once the sealed reactors are built, they will be taken here to the Osborne Naval ship yard and placed in the submarines which the rest of which will be built here at Osborne.

Building nuclear reactors is difficult to do and in order for this to play out, that facility in Derby, which is building nuclear reactors for Britain’s navy, that needs to be expanded and that is what this contribution is for.

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Baby killer Keli Lane refused release from NSW jail in ‘no body, no parole’ law test

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Keli Lane, convicted of murdering newborn daughter in 1996, refused parole because she has not helped police find Tegan’s body

A woman convicted of killing her baby daughter in one of Australia’s most notorious criminal cases has been denied parole after more than 13 years behind bars.

Keli Lane, 48, was convicted in 2010 after a jury found her guilty of murdering her newborn daughter Tegan in September 1996.

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Hillsong founder Brian Houston loses legal costs bid after being cleared of allegedly concealing child abuse

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Magistrate refuses application for costs after 70-year-old cleared of serious indictable offence over not reporting his father’s abuse to police

The Hillsong founder Brian Houston has failed in a bid to have his legal costs covered after unsuccessfully being prosecuted for allegedly covering up his late father’s child abuse.

The 70-year-old was cleared in August of concealing a serious indictable offence for not reporting his father Frank Houston’s abuse of Brett Sengstock to police.

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NSW outlaws gay conversion practices and makes it harder for young people to get bail

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LGBTQ groups welcome legislation passed after marathon overnight sitting, but critics line up to warn bail laws will put more children in jail

Gay conversion practices have been outlawed in New South Wales and it will be harder for teenage offenders to get bail after two laws passed the state’s parliament overnight.

The laws will, separately, ban conversion practices such as religious “straight camps” that attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation and introduce an extra test for some young people seeking bail.

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ABC broadcaster James Valentine ‘hopeful and terrified’ after oesophageal cancer diagnosis

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Sydney Afternoons’ host told listeners he will need surgery to remove his entire oesophagus and is taking several months off

Broadcaster and saxophonist James Valentine has revealed live on ABC radio that he has oesophageal cancer and is taking several months off to undergo surgery.

The host of Sydney’s Afternoons program, Valentine told his listeners the cancer was discovered after he “choked and retched” while eating curry at a party in December.

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NSW could be forced to pay up to $4.3bn compensation if Newcastle becomes container port, modelling shows

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Modelling conducted for Treasury finds state’s liability to competing terminals could be $600m in 2024 and $4.3bn by 2063

The New South Wales government could be forced to pay up to $4.3bn in compensation if Newcastle becomes a container port, after it was privatised a decade ago along with two other major ports.

The government will on Thursday reveal the contracts used in the sales of Port Botany and Port Kembla in 2013 and the sale of the Port of Newcastle the following year, as well as modelling commissioned on the northern port’s plan to develop container abilities.

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Data missing on clearing of endangered ecosystems for western Sydney housing scheme

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NSW environment department spokesperson says offset program for the area has continued despite failure to file reports for three years

The New South Wales environment department stopped monitoring and reporting on a $530m conservation program meant to compensate for swathes of land-clearing at the same time as its management of biodiversity offset schemes was under investigation, Guardian Australia can reveal.

Conservationists and the NSW Greens say the government must investigate the “startling failure” by the department to report on progress towards meeting the conservation offset requirements for new suburb developments in western Sydney.

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NSW temperatures to plunge as cold weather sweeps south-east of Australia

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The cold front has been moving steadily across South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania

Parts of New South Wales will feel a sudden drop in temperature on Wednesday evening as a cold front continues to sweep the south-east of the country.

The cold front has been moving steadily across South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania since Tuesday and will reach NSW on Wednesday.

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