Category Archives: New South Wales

Icac given power to use illegally obtained recordings in NSW corruption investigations

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State government grants new power to assist watchdog after request from chief commissioner John Hatzistergos

The New South Wales corruption watchdog has been granted the power to use in its investigations recordings that have been obtained illegally by third parties.

The state government on Wednesday gave the Independent Commission Against Corruption the new power to assist it with an ongoing investigation after a request from its chief commissioner, John Hatzistergos.

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NSW government department ‘refusing’ to publish community feedback on shark nets

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Greens MP says it is ‘unacceptable’ that results not made public as Minns government faces calls to abandon nets

The New South Wales Department of Primary Industries has kept hidden the results of surveys it conducted to gauge community opinion on shark nets, as the government forges ahead with the controversial deterrence strategy.

The department has not published the surveys for the past two years and has not released the results to two upper house MPs, environmentalists and Sydney’s Randwick council despite their requests for them.

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Investment in new Australian wind and solar farms stalls amid ‘raft of barriers’, report finds

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First half of year had slowest pace of final approvals in Clean Energy Council’s six years of tracking, but backing for power storage was more promising

Investment in new wind and solar farms has all but stalled with developers facing a “raft of barriers” despite strong political support, the Clean Energy Council said in its latest quarterly report.

The first half of 2023 produced the slowest pace of final investment approvals in the council’s six years of data tracking. Just four generation projects accounting for 348 megawatts – or roughly the size of a single coal-fired power station unit – secured financial commitment in the June quarter.

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NSW police watchdog to oversee investigation into arrest of Indigenous man with disability in Taree

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Teenager remains in custody and faces seven charges, including hindering or resisting a police officer

The New South Wales police watchdog will oversee an investigation into the violent arrest in Taree last week of a handcuffed Aboriginal teenager with a disability.

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC), an independent watchdog that has oversight of NSW police, has confirmed it is involved in the force’s internal inquiry and that police have received a serious misconduct complaint about the incident.

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Senator responds to report – as it happened

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Conroy says comments at Labor conference about strategic balance in Pacific

Conroy is asked about comments he made at the Labor conference, saying it is against Australia’s interest to have one power dominate our region, especially one that breaches international laws.

And is it your view that China is trying to do that, dominate our region?

I’m not going to be going into what other countries are doing but it’s clear that we’re seeing great strategic competition in our region, and it’s appropriate that we respond through increased diplomatic engagement and an increasing deterrence in the Australian Defence Force.

They all play complementary roles in promoting peace and stability in our [region].

So this is about peace and stability in our region by deterring conflict and I know you will respond that saying, well, aren’t we just engaging in military buildup, but in the end, the only way we pursue peace and stability is by presenting strength. This is what this is about.

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Australian police rejected Fifa requests for Gianni Infantino to be escorted during World Cup travel

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Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria police turned down request for escort for Fifa president, which is normally reserved for foreign heads of state

Fifa asked Australian police in multiple jurisdictions to provide escorts for president Gianni Infantino during his travel for the Women’s World Cup, but was turned down.

Infantino asked Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales police to provide him with escorts, the Guardian has confirmed.

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NSW splits planning and environment mega department – as it happened

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Labor Against War convener: PM ‘running scared’ from rank and file on Aukus

The Labor Against War national convener, Marcus Strom, says the prime minister is “running scared” from the rank and file members of Labor, who he says don’t want the Aukus deal.

Many of us hoped it would be put in the pile of bad Scott Morrison ideas but it was embraced.

And it’s been doubled down on and this has been done without a proper conversation with the Australian people and today delegates won’t even get a chance to remove Aukus from the national platform.

Imagine the jobs we could be creating in housing, in health, in the transition to a green economy. It’s a lost opportunity for a Labor government and it could lead us to a war no Australian has an interest in.

We don’t need to go to war with our biggest trading partner. It would be an act of craziness. We have a motion ready to go from the floor to strike Aukus. They are running scared from the rank and file.

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Aboriginal 18-year-old with disability thrown to ground during NSW police arrest while having seizure

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Exclusive: Police launch internal investigation over arrest at Taree, as footage shows officer performing a leg sweep while man is handcuffed

New South Wales police have launched an investigation after a young Aboriginal man with disability was violently arrested while having a seizure and thrown to the ground while handcuffed in Taree.

The 18-year-old was arrested on Tuesday after police received reports a man had allegedly tried to break into two homes. Police said the man then fled. A man was arrested on Gwenneth Avenue.

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NSW court ruling will make it almost impossible to contest drug-driving charges, legal experts claim

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Judge says decision involving a Sydney man who lost his licence after testing positive for cocaine pivoted on presence of drug rather than his credibility

Legal experts have argued a New South Wales district court judgment will make it almost impossible for people facing drug-driving charges to defend themselves, no matter the circumstances.

The decision, handed down on 26 July, involved a Sydney man who lost his licence after testing positive for cocaine at a roadside drug test.

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Australia news live: Federation Square axed as Women’s World Cup live site after fan misbehaviour

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Melbourne lord mayor threatens to cancel Federation Square viewing site due to rowdy behaviour of small group of ‘idiots’

And sticking with the flares, Melbourne’s lord mayor, Sally Capp, has threatened to cancel the live viewing site at Federation square due to the rowdy behaviour of a small group of supporters.

If we could find those idiots and make sure they don’t attend, then Fed Square will be going off again, but unfortunately sometimes the few ruin it for the rest of us.

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Australian Border Force raid home in Sydney’s south amid reports nuclear isotopes found

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Road blocked off in Arncliffe with hazmat officers, but authorities refuse to comment on whether nuclear material was found at the address

The Australian Border Force has raided a home in Sydney’s south amid reports nuclear isotopes have been found.

ABF officers were understood to be at the unit in Kelsey Street in Arncliffe executing a search on another matter when they discovered the potentially hazardous materials.

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Catholic church uses death of paedophile priest in bid to stop survivor suing NSW diocese, court hears

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Church claims it cannot get fair trial over alleged abuse by the notorious David Joseph Perrett in legal tactic that has drawn widespread criticism

The Catholic church is seeking to use using the death of a “prolific paedophile” priest to permanently prevent a dying Indigenous man from seeking justice for alleged abuse suffered on camping trips in rural New South Wales.

Two survivors are suing the church’s Armidale diocese for the alleged abuse by notorious priest David Joseph Perrett during camping trips from an Aboriginal mission in the mid-1970s.

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Chief of NSW’s largest council wants developer tax to build swimming pools and libraries

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Blacktown’s Kerry Robinson warns rates would need to rise by 40% to pay for community facilities for more than 250,000 expected new residents

The chief executive of New South Wales’ largest council is calling for a new tax on developers to pay for social infrastructure such as swimming pools, warning the alternative would be to raise rates in urban fringe communities by 40%.

The Blacktown city council chief executive officer, Kerry Robinson, said his council had “no funding source” for libraries or community meeting places to accommodate the more than 250,000 people who are expected to move into the sprawling local government area in western Sydney over the next two decades.

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Opposition refers minister to Ibac – as it happened

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Warren Mundine said he has kicked two people off his no campaign group Recognise a Better Way, one of which for allegedly making an antisemitic comment.

I’ve actually kicked several people off our campaign in regard to their comments and I intend to keep on doing that.

That’s just between us and the couple of people we had sent off. I don’t appreciate racist comments … All they know is I got rid of them and I don’t accept any racial comments from anyone in regard to these issues.

… It wasn’t particularly about Aboriginals, one was a very antisemitic comment and I’m not gonna wear that crap.

When I talk about treaties, when I talk about constitutional recognition, it is in regard to treaties that are signed between the commonwealth government and First Nations peoples.

… I believe in treaties between the First Nations and the commonwealth and at that, and I put it in that context.

I was involved in the beginning … and then after it got further down the track in regard to [what] it was looking at, [then I said] I don’t support that.

It has to be the First Nations, it has to be the traditional owners who make those agreements. I can’t speak for other people’s country, and they can’t speak for my country.

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UberEats food delivery driver dies in Sydney crash

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The death is the second in a month and the 13th since 2017 of a transport gig worker, with calls for ‘life or death’ reforms to the industry

A second Sydney food delivery driver has died in a month, prompting “life or death” calls for urgent reform to the transport industry.

The UberEats driver, believed to be aged in his 20s, died in Campbelltown about 6pm on Saturday in a collision with a ute.

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NSW Labor accused of ‘fundamental breach of trust’ over logging in promised koala national park

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Tensions are escalating in state forests near Bellingen, where a protesters’ camp is locked in a standoff with a heavy police presence

The New South Wales government has been accused of stalling on a promise to create a national park to protect koalas as tension mounts over logging in the state’s northern forests.

Protesters and police have been engaged in a standoff, with both groups setting up forest camps, as logging takes place in the Newry state forest near the town of Bellingen, on the mid-north coast.

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NSW minister concedes social housing situation ‘desperate’ as waitlist for most in need doubles in a decade

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Exclusive: Rose Jackson announces monthly release of social housing data, with first tranche showing ‘priority’ applications soaring

New South Wales’s priority social housing waitlist has doubled in less than a decade and surged by 1,000 to 7,573 over the past year, as wait times continue to rise across the state.

New data from the department of communities and justice, to be released on Friday, will reveal the extent of a crisis that the housing minister, Rose Jackson, has conceded is “desperate” and “confronting”.

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Sexual offence trials regularly rely on ‘rape myths’ and stereotypes of victim-survivors, NSW study finds

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Analysis of trial transcripts shows prosecutors and defence still focus on conduct of victim-survivor

Prosecutors and defence lawyers regularly rely on stereotypes about how sexual violence victim-survivors should behave and “rape myths” during sexual offence trials in New South Wales, a study has found.

The study, which undertook the largest analysis of sexual offence trial transcripts in the state in 27 years, found many of the procedural reforms that started in the 1980s to improve the experience of sexual violence victim-survivors in the criminal justice system were working.

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Darling-Baaka River at Menindee faces more fish kills as temperatures rise

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Exclusive: Dead fish are again appearing in the stressed Darling-Baaka at Menindee, as a fisheries department report reveals the river’s poor state

The Darling-Baaka River at Menindee is on the brink of another environmental catastrophe, with dead fish already appearing along 30km of the river compromised by the last fish kill in March, according to experts.

The office of the chief scientist is due to report by 31 August on the causes of the March disaster, which killed millions of bony herring (also known as bony bream) and thousands of other native fish and carp.

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Australian effort to contain fire ants hampered by funding shortfall, documents show

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Invasive Species Council releases material showing contrast between original $133m plan to fully eradicate the ants and $89m ‘revised work plan’

Lack of proper funding is hindering efforts to contain the spread of invasive fire ants by Australian authorities, according to documents obtained by the Invasive Species Council.

The documents show a stark contrast between the original $133m plan to fully eradicate the ants and an $89m “revised work plan” to continue for the next 12 months. This revised plan would only treat half the area needed, even as the ants continue their southward march towards New South Wales.

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