Category Archives: New South Wales

Marion Barter disappearance: Ric Blum rejects testimony of four other witnesses before inquest

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Key witness asserts other women’s statements are ‘all lies’ and says he believes Marion Barter is still alive

Ric Blum, the key witness at the inquest into the disappearance of Marion Barter, has denied most of the testimony of four female witnesses to a coroner in Lismore, even as more evidence was heard.

“It is all lies,” Blum said as he gave evidence during the New South Wales inquest on Thursday. “People have made up their mind after hearing the podcast.”

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Boy, 15, and man, 58, found dead with bullet wounds inside home in NSW town of Yamba

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A crime scene has been established and will be examined but police do not believe a third party was involved

The bodies of a 15-year-old boy and a 58-year-old man have been found inside a home in Yamba on the New South Wales north coast.

Police were called to Kookaburra Circuit on Thursday afternoon after reports two bodies had been found. A 58-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy were found dead at the property, both with gunshot wounds.

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Lonely hearts ad led another woman to key witness in Marion Barter’s disappearance, inquest hears

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Coroner seeking to establish what happened to Gold Coast school teacher, subject of The Lady Vanishes podcast

Ghislaine Dubois-Danlois was 72 and at a low point in her life when she put a lonely hearts ad in a newspaper in 2006. A widow, she was “exhausted” and “wanted to think about something new”.

“I wasn’t looking into the future,” she told a Lismore court via satellite link from her home in Brussels on Wednesday.

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NSW lawyers call for reform of ‘disgraceful’ tactic churches use to block abuse claims

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Critics say the seeking of permanent stays in cases where perpetrators have died amount to ‘another layer of abuse’ for survivors and a failure of moral leadership

The Australian Lawyers Alliance is preparing to meet with the New South Wales attorney general to lobby for reform against the “disgraceful” tactics employed by churches and other institutions to prevent abuse survivors from pursuing justice.

A Guardian investigation – based on interviews with 13 lawyers, analysis of court records, and discussions with survivors and their advocates – found earlier this year that churches and other institutions are now routinely seeking permanent stays in cases where perpetrators have died, arguing they cannot possibly receive a fair trial.

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Boy, 3, found dead in Sydney unit alongside injured 45-year-old man

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NSW police are investigating after toddler found in Riverwoood on Wednesday afternoon

A toddler has been found dead in a Sydney apartment alongside an injured a man, authorities say.

The three-year-old was found inside the Riverwood home at about 4pm on Wednesday.

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Warm winter weather awaits Australians after month of record-breaking cold

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After shivering through an unexpectedly cold May, BoM forecasts higher-than-average daytime temperatures, along with colder nights and less rain

Winter is coming … even though it may not feel like it.

With Thursday marking the first day of winter, much of Australia can look forward to a warmer-than-average season, after a historically cold May for much of the east coast.

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Australia politics live: Lambie threatens to disrupt Senate over Afghanistan medals; question time under way

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Adam Bandt rails against Woodside’s exclusion from petroleum resource rent tax

Greens leader Adam Bandt is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast about the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) changes and in particular the fact that Woodside’s Western Australian North-West Shelf project isn’t included in it.

The tax is still broken, and they’re meant to be subjected to it. They should pay their fair share of tax. As I say, even after these changes, Australia only brings in a few $100 million extra from these big gas corporations that are making billions of dollars of profits. It’s about a 10th of what comparable countries bring in. If we made these guess corporations pay their fair share of tax. They’d be an extra $94 billion over the decade to go to things like delivering cost-of-living relief, funding a rent freeze, getting dental into Medicare.

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NSW politicians and public service executives hit with wage freeze to fund payrise for frontline workers

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Legislation will be introduced to state parliament on Tuesday freezing the salaries of MPs and executives from July

Promised pay rises for New South Wales frontline workers will be funded by a two-year freeze on the wages of state politicians and public service senior executives.

Legislation will be introduced to state parliament on Tuesday freezing the salaries of MPs and executives from July and redirecting the millions of dollars in savings to nurses, paramedics, teachers and other frontline workers.

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Proportion of Aboriginal inmates in NSW hit a record 29.7% in February

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Exclusive: State Aboriginal Legal Service calls for end to ‘over-policing’ of Indigenous people

The proportion of Aboriginal people in prisons across New South Wales has reached an all-time high, prompting an urgent call from key groups for governments to end the “over-policing” of Indigenous communities.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) figures revealed Aboriginal people accounted for a record 29.7% of the state’s adult prison population in February, dipping slightly to 29.5% in March.

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Woman found dead in Sydney after police failed to locate source of alleged domestic dispute

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Man charged with domestic violence offences including stalking and contravention of an AVO

A man has been charged with domestic violence offences after police found a woman’s body inside a western Sydney apartment, after earlier failing to locate the source of a domestic dispute.

Police received an anonymous phone call about an alleged domestic dispute at a Liverpool apartment block about 11.45pm on Friday.

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Two men charged after police find $60m worth of cocaine in shipping container in Sydney

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Police were called to a container logistics company in Port Botany after reports of a break and enter on Thursday night

Two Greek nationals have been charged with numerous offences after police allegedly found $60m worth of cocaine in the walls of a shipping container in Sydney.

Police were called to a Port Botany container logistics company after reports of a break and enter about 11pm on Thursday.

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More than 40,000 hectares of nationally vital koala habitat marked for potential logging in NSW

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Analysis shows area includes 9,000 hectares where there was already active logging as pressure grows on government to end practice

Conservationists say forest areas that include 41,000 hectares of nationally important koala habitat have been identified for potential logging on the north coast of New South Wales in the region’s 12-month logging plan.

The analysis, by the North East Forest Alliance, comes as pressure grows on the NSW government to cease logging of native forests after the Victorian government announced logging in its native forests would end in December, six years earlier than planned.

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Maria Kovacic: former NSW Liberal president will replace Jim Molan in Senate as Andrew Constance’s bid fails

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Kovacic ran for the lower house seat of Parramatta in the last federal election but was defeated by Labor’s Andrew Charlton

A former president of the New South Wales Liberal party will fill the Senate vacancy left by Jim Molan, who died of prostate cancer in January.

Maria Kovacic, who resigned from her official party position to run for the NSW Senate seat, defeated her closest challenger, Andrew Constance, a former NSW cabinet minister.

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‘A festering tree’: growing calls for parliamentary inquiry into NSW police use of force

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Justice experts say there needs to be a more rigorous process for when Tasers and guns can be deployed to change the way officers manage incidents

Calls are growing for a parliamentary inquiry into use of force by New South Wales police, with justice experts saying too much focus is being placed on the actions of individual police officers rather than the “festering” systemic problem.

“This isn’t a case of a few bad apples, it’s a case of a festering tree,” said Samantha Lee, a lawyer at Redfern Legal Centre.

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Nurses union fined $350,000 for West Australian strike; Rex Patrick loses FOI challenge – as it happened

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The former independent senator has lost his legal challenge against what he argued were unreasonable delays in the freedom of information (FOI) system. Follow the day’s news live

Evacuated dental hospital near site of Sydney blaze becomes emergency services hub

While the light rail that runs past the charred husk of the burnt out building on Randle Ln is running this morning, many of the roads are blocked off by police tape, including a usually very busy section of Elizabeth St, which will likely have an impact on morning traffic.

There’s else a lot of work to be done. The building opposite has been damaged by that extreme heat. Firefighters were able to cut that fire off from spreading into the building across the road. But the main priority is that wall. There are two walls that are in a precarious position.

We are talking about tonnes and tonnes of bricks that could come down and become projectiles that is why we have such a tight exclusion zone, not allowing anyone in, including firefighter[s], until we get the engineers in.

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Sydney fire: two teenagers assisting police with inquiries after Surry Hills building blaze

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Authorities ‘furiously’ searching for two people among 15 sleeping rough in heritage building the night before fire

Two teenagers were assisting police with their inquiries after a fire at a heritage-listed building in Sydney’s Surry Hills that police described as a “once in a decade” inferno. The cause of the fire remains unknown.

Police were also “furiously” searching to locate two people who were among 15 sleeping rough in the building the night before the fire. They have confirmed 13 of those people were safe and well.

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Sydney firefighters working to extinguish building fire after ‘apocalyptic’ Surry Hills blaze

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NSW Fire and Rescue say it will be a ‘substantial and very prolonged’ effort of firefighting to extinguish the blaze completely

An “apocalyptic” blaze engulfed a building near Central station in Sydney on Thursday afternoon, sending a massive plume of smoke into the air and causing parts of the building to collapse.

More than 100 firefighters worked to contain the massive fire. Fire and Rescue NSW said it would be a “substantial and very prolonged” effort to extinguish the blaze completely.

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Cold snap with damaging winds, hail and snow forecast for Australia’s south-east

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Severe weather warnings for wind gusts of up 100km/h issued for Tasmania, Victoria and NSW, BoM says

A cold front is set to sweep across Australia’s south-east in the coming days, bringing icy winds and steep drops in temperature.

The front is brushing the southern tip of Western Australia and is expected to strengthen and intensify as it approaches south-eastern Australia.

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NSW renewable energy zones up to two years behind schedule

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‘We are not going to allow the lights to go off,’ state energy minister Penny Sharpe vows

New South Wales’ two main renewable energy zones will be delayed for as long as two years and cost more to build with landholder opposition to new transmission lines partly to blame, the energy minister, Penny Sharpe, has said.

The Minns government briefed journalists about its network infrastructure strategy on Wednesday, revealing that the central-west Orana zone would not hit its “energisation date” until 2027-28, compared with an initial 2025 target. Similarly, the New England zone will now start in 2029 compared with an initial 2027 goal.

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Review needed of police deployment to aged care after 95-year-old woman Tasered, says age discrimination commissioner

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Dr Kay Patterson questions whether mental health team would be more appropriate while David Shoebridge says police tools are ‘wrong resource’

The age discrimination commissioner has said the deployment of police officers to respond to incidents in aged care homes should be reviewed after the Tasering of 95-year-old Claire Nowland.

Nowland, who weighs 43kg and lives with dementia, was Tasered by police after she was found armed with a steak knife in her home at an aged care facility in Cooma. She is in end-of-life care at Cooma district hospital after the incident caused her to fall and sustain life-threatening head injuries.

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