Category Archives: New South Wales

Former NSW police officer who lost her arm after a car accident awarded $2.3m by the court

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County court judge found physical and psychological injuries from the accident caused ‘complete destruction of her capacity for any form of meaningful remunerative work’

A former police officer has been awarded $2.3m after a car accident during a cannabis clearing operation that led to the amputation of her arm and the “complete destruction” of her earning capacity.

In a district court decision handed down in Sydney on Friday, acting judge Leonard Levy SC found the state of New South Wales had breached its duty of care to the former officer Jillian Oliver, and that its negligence had resulted in the accident, her injuries, and her “catastrophic” physical and psychological situation.

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Victoria warned to prepare for ‘destruction’ with severe weather and snow forecast

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Gusts reaching up to 130km/h expected to push further into south-eastern states on Saturday, bringing showers, hail and thunderstorms

Blizzards have been forecast for parts of Victoria and residents have been warned to prepare for power outages and “destruction” as damaging winds are expected to lash the south-eastern states into the weekend.

An intense cold front began moving across Victoria from South Australia on Friday, after rain, thunderstorms and destructive winds battered the Adelaide metro area and surrounds on Thursday night and Friday morning, and a tornado warning was briefly issued.

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Looming crisis for NSW’s regional galleries averted with $15.4m in state arts funding

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Labor announced on Thursday Create NSW’s Arts and Cultural Funding Program will provide financial assistance for 62 organisations statewide

Arts organisations and galleries across New South Wales have voiced their relief after the state government announced $15.4m funding over two years, allaying worries of a looming crisis for NSW’s regional galleries.

Sixty-two arts organisations across NSW will receive $15.4m funding for the next two years through Create NSW’s Arts and Cultural Funding Program (ACFP), the state government announced on Thursday, with $7.5m going to 31 regional arts organisations, including 10 regional galleries.

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Overcrowding in NSW hospitals ‘worst’ some doctors have seen as winter illnesses clog emergency departments

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State health minister Ryan Park says there have been more than 45,000 presentations to EDs over the past five days

The New South Wales health minister has encouraged people to call the health hotline instead of going to emergency departments as a spike in winter illnesses has doctors saying overcrowding is the “worst they have ever seen”.

In a statement on Thursday, Ryan Park said there had been more than 45,000 presentations to EDs over the past five days.

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Jai Kalani Wright: video of Indigenous teen’s fatal collision with police car prompts family walkout of Sydney court

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Benedict Bryant has pleaded not guilty to a charge of dangerous driving occasioning death

Harrowing footage has been aired in court of the moment an Indigenous teenager riding a trail bike crashed into a police vehicle, as a battle erupts over the relevance of an earlier collision.

Sgt Benedict Bryant, 47, was behind the wheel when Jai Kalani Wright rode the motorbike into his unmarked police vehicle in inner-city Sydney on 19 February 2022.

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Passengers to get to Sydney CBD in minutes from new train station set to boost construction of 10,000 homes

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Commuters could get from Woollahra to city in eight minutes on eastern suburbs line with rezoning of area to include ‘a dedicated portion of affordable housing’

Australia’s oldest suburban rail network is on track for its first new station in more than a decade to boost construction of 10,000 homes in the country’s most expensive property market.

A station wasn’t built at Woollahra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs line when the route was built in the 1970s because of community opposition.

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Lobbying rules in NSW are woefully inadequate but Icac’s calls for reform keep getting ignored

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The state’s corruption watchdog is up against the age-old dynamic of cosy relationships: no one on the inside of politics wants to change

Australia’s parliaments aren’t just filled with MPs, staff and media – but also armies of lobbyists seeking an audience or a coffee with the people who can affect their interests with the stroke of a pen.

Millions of dollars are at stake. Will the government rezone land? Tweak a law that makes an activity legal? Exempt an activity from tax or grant an environmental approval?

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Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer asks defamation appeal for more time to prepare but justices tell her ‘start now’

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Zali Burrows told she has had ‘plenty’ of opportunity to consider issue in case despite repeated requests to adjourn early

Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation appeal lawyer has repeatedly asked the federal court to adjourn early to give her more time to prepare, but the justices refused, telling the solicitor she has had “plenty” of time.

Sydney criminal solicitor Zali Burrows is representing Lehrmann, who is appealing Justice Michael Lee’s April 2024 judgment, which found the former Liberal staffer was not defamed by Lisa Wilkinson and Network 10 when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021 in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House.

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NSW daily rainfall could ‘nudge triple figures’ with wet weather forecast to intensify

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Flood concerns along east coast and severe weather warning for west coast amid national cold snap

Daily rainfall in parts of New South Wales could hit triple figures this week, as Australia’s east and west coasts brace for more wet and cold weather.

Several places along the NSW coastline saw rainfall of more than 50mm overnight into Tuesday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, which warned that the wet weather would persist and intensify on Wednesday and Thursday.

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Northern Beaches hospital agrees settlement after claims newborn left with lifelong disabilities

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Exclusive: Child was born via emergency caesarean at 25 weeks after mother says hospital initially failed to diagnose her appendicitis, court documents show

Sydney’s Northern Beaches hospital has settled outside court with a family after claims their baby was born by emergency caesarean at 25 weeks and left with lifelong disabilities.

Court documents seen by Guardian Australia reveal the baby’s mother presented to the hospital’s birthing unit in 2022, complaining of lower abdominal pain on her right side. The woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – says she was sent home without being given an ultrasound or undergoing any further investigation.

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Rain and storms forecast for much of Australia’s east coast for every day next week

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Meteorologist says while there is disagreement over how much rain will fall, the general consensus is NSW and Queensland will have another wet week

For Australia’s east coast, the wet weeks are dragging on with no immediate reprieve in sight.

“I know people in Sydney and other parts of New South Wales will be sick of hearing this,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Angus Hines told the ABC on Saturday. “But it will be another wet week across the eastern coastline, all the way from the Illawarra through New South Wales, through Sydney, Newcastle, through Brisbane up to the Wide Bay in Queensland”.

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Climate wars are simmering among the NSW Liberals – and they could pose a problem for Mark Speakman

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Energy policy had been an area of mostly bipartisan agreement for the NSW opposition – until now

The never-ending war within the Coalition over energy policy and climate targets appears to have infected the New South Wales Liberals as they struggle to restore the administration of their branch and get traction with voters.

It’s bad news for the NSW opposition leader, Mark Speakman, whose hold on the leadership is being increasingly questioned.

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Man arrested over Sydney airport scuffle back in custody after alleged assault at Central train station

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Nicholas Teplin, 41, allegedly struck three men on Thursday afternoon, a day after airport arrest during which a police gun accidentally fired

A Victorian man involved in an airport scuffle in which a police gun was accidentally fired is back in custody for allegedly assaulting several people the next day.

Nicholas Teplin, 41, faced a court on Friday on allegations he hit three men in the head at Sydney’s Central railway station and then shoved a police officer while in custody.

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Childcare workers with ‘red flags’ should be on database to prevent them ‘shopping around’ for lax centres, inquiry told

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Head of NSW police child sex abuse squad also advises parents to report concerns directly to police – not their childcare centre

The head of the New South Wales police child sexual abuse squad has called for the creation of a national database of childcare workers who have had “red flags” raised that fall short of criminal prosecution.

Giving evidence before a government inquiry into the early childhood education sector in NSW, Det Supt Linda Howlett said such a database would allow centres to share intelligence about former employees who have faced serious allegations that didn’t result in criminal charges. They are still allowed to work with children.

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Sydney has wettest start to August in decades – and there could be more rain when spring arrives

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More than double the monthly average rain fell in the first 11 days, marking the wettest start to the month since 1998

After Sydney’s soggiest start to August in nearly three decades, even more rain could be on the way, with a wetter than usual spring forecast for eastern New South Wales.

Only 11 days into August, rainfall in the city had reached 194mm – more than double the monthly average – marking the wettest start to the month since 1998, according to Weatherzone.

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Byron writers festival cancelled and warnings for Sydney’s City2Surf due to east coast rain dump

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Major flood warning remains in place along Namoi River as parts of coastline receive almost double August monthly rainfall in eight days

Heavy rainfall across Australia’s eastern states has prompted the cancellation of the Byron writers festival and a warning for participants in Sunday’s City2Surf race in Sydney to take care, after parts of the east coast received nearly double the typical August monthly rainfall in eight days.

The Byron festival organisers said they were “devastated” to announce the cancellation of the annual event due to the condition of the festival site and ongoing rain, and that it was a “deeply regrettable but necessary decision”.

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NSW police officers jailed for assaulting woman suffering mental health episode during welfare check

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Nathan Black, 28, and Timothy John Trautsch, 30, sentenced to at least three years in prison for attack in Sydney in 2023

Two police officers who punched, kicked and pepper-sprayed a naked woman experiencing a mental health episode will spend the next three years behind bars.

Nathan Black, 28, and Timothy John Trautsch, 30, were sentenced in the Penrith district court in Sydney on Friday.

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Six-year-old girl dies of influenza after twice being discharged from Sydney hospital

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Girl was sent home from Sydney Children’s hospital in Randwick twice before being admitted to Northern Beaches hospital a day later, where she died

A six-year-old girl has died of the flu at Northern Beaches hospital after being twice sent home from the Sydney Children’s hospital, and the New South Wales health minister has said her parents “deserve answers”.

The girl presented to the emergency department at the Sydney Children’s hospital in Randwick on Monday and was discharged after a clinical assessment.

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Kathleen Folbigg’s $2m compensation ‘a moral affront’ after two decades in jail for wrongful convictions, lawyer says

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Appeals court formally overturned mother’s convictions over her children’s four deaths in 2023, clearing her name

Kathleen Folbigg has been compensated an “insulting” amount of $2m after spending two decades in prison before an inquiry found she had been wrongfully convicted for killing her four children.

Folbigg, once referred to as among Australia’s worst serial killers, was convicted in 2003 and ordered to serve a minimum 25-year sentence for the suffocation murders of three of her children and manslaughter of a fourth.

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University of Sydney removes Palestinian flag from academic’s window after accusing him of breaching policy

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Dr David Brophy claims new flag policy introduced in June was ‘precisely in response to people like me hanging Palestinian flags’

The University of Sydney has removed a Palestinian flag hanging outside an academic’s office after accusing him of breaching its new flag policy.

The 13-page flag policy, revised in June and formerly referred to as flag guidelines, sets out the university’s requirements for flying and displaying flags and using university flagpoles. Under the policy, “unapproved flags” must not be flown permanently, including flags that represent unlawful activities, are inconsistent with university values, represent a political party or are considered to be “otherwise unsuitable”.

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