Hundreds rescued in NSW over Christmas break as hot weather sends people flocking to beaches and waterways
At least 10 people have died in water accidents around Australia over the Christmas period and lifesavers have pulled hundreds more from danger.
On Tuesday two girls aged 13 and 14 died when they hit a tree stump while being towed behind a boat on an inflatable at Tamworth in north-eastern NSW.
Continue reading...Adelaide stayed at 27.4C overnight while Victoria is forecast to dip no lower than 26C, the state’s hottest night in four years
Adelaide has sweated through a 38C morning as millions of people in the country’s south endure the peak of a summer heatwave.
Heatwave warnings were issued for South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and isolated parts of Western Australia with temperatures 8C to 16C above average.
Continue reading...Cause of blaze unknown, but an incorrectly recycled battery or vape has not been ruled out
A fire that destroyed a recycling centre in Canberra’s south will cause a major setback to waste reduction efforts in the ACT and New South Wales.
Firefighters battled a blaze at the Hume facility that started late on Monday night and raged through to the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Continue reading...Firefighters forced to flee scene of Newport fire after part of the roof collapsed revealing a ruptured gas line; Louis Ryckmans of the crew of Yeah Baby says he initially thought collision with ‘leviathan’ sunfish was boat hitting a reef. This blog is now closed
Heavy rainfall expected across northern Australia: BoM
Howe says the tropical monsoon period is “very active” at the moment across northern Australia.
That’s associated with ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie which is continuing to deliver heavy rainfall across the NT.
There is a warning for intense rainfall and damaging winds. We’ve already seen rainfall totals of more than 200mm over the last few days, causing roads to be washed out. Reminding travellers to take care and check conditions before heading out.
We will see a cool change move through Adelaide late tonight and towards midnight, moving through western Victoria in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
We will see the cool change move through around lunchtime today for Melbourne and also tomorrow afternoon for Hobart.
Continue reading...Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigating after two bodies found in aircraft wreckage at Appin
A light plane crash which killed two people and sparked a grassfire in south-west Sydney will be examined by the national transport safety agency.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Boxing Day crash.
Continue reading...With reports of surf lifesaving rescues up in some states, there are fears of a repeat of last summer, when 145 people drowned
Australians are being urged to be safe in the water this week, as the country enters the most dangerous time of the year for fatal drownings.
Two swimmers drowned on Christmas Day – a 36-year-old man in Sydney and a 19-year-old in Lorne in Victoria – and police divers in Western Australia are searching Black Diamond Lake near Collie in the state’s south-west after a 30-year-old man did not return from a swim.
Continue reading...Paramedics treated the two-year-old boy but he died at the scene. A man was taken for mandatory testing and is assisting with the police investigation
A child has died after being hit by a 4WD at a Sydney property on Christmas Eve.
Emergency services were called to Dural in Sydney’s north-west about 6pm on Saturday where they found a two-year-old boy who was critically injured.
Continue reading...Report, which also recommends linking Sydney to Wollongong and ranks Canberra route as a lower priority, cost taxpayers $390,000
A secret review of high-speed rail options for New South Wales is understood to prioritise lines to Newcastle and Wollongong at speeds of up to 250km/h, but ranks the much-vaunted Sydney to Canberra route as a lower priority.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the findings today but said it had not seen the report.
Continue reading...Governments, peak bodies and advocates set to discuss security and verification polices next month
A criminologist has called for dating apps to introduce criminal history checks on users as the federal government is set to hold a summit into the security measures used by the platforms.
Dr Rachael Burgin, lecturer of criminology at Swinburne law school, said there was a clear need for dating apps to implement robust verification systems and criminal checks.
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Long delays on M7 at Prestons in Sydney
Traffic is banked up on the M7 in Sydney. Chanel 7 is reporting that a truck crash has caused the long delays.
They’re sharing their emotions and their grief because they believe this should never have happened.
It’s really important for us to have that public support. It inspires us to continue to do our job.
They’ve also lost two colleagues … so they are hurting incredibly.
A lot of work to be done to assist them as we move into the future because the pain will never go away.
Continue reading...Canterbury Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour tells committee he’s had a ‘target on my back’ since the pandemic
A New South Wales Labor candidate has accused a parliamentary committee of wasting taxpayers’ money by investigating him for impropriety and called for a government minister to be sacked.
The Canterbury Bankstown mayor, Khal Asfour, has been called as a witness by the upper house committee, which is looking into allegations of impropriety at Canterbury Bankstown council.
Continue reading...Hillsong founder maintains it was victim’s explicit wish for incident not to be made public or for there to be an investigation, court hears
The Hillsong founder, Brian Houston, believes he did the “right thing” not going to police after his father told him he had molested an underage boy three decades earlier.
Houston maintains it was the victim’s explicit wish not for the incident to be made public or for there to be an investigation by authorities.
Continue reading...Senator David Shoebridge hopes to ‘rebalance the scales of justice’ after states crack down on activists
A series of harsh state-based laws cracking down on climate activists could be overridden by a federal “right to protest” bill being pushed by the Greens.
After the jailing of climate activist Deanna “Violet” Coco in New South Wales this month, the party says the commonwealth has the power to overturn the series of state laws passed in recent years that experts say curtailed the right to protest in Australia.
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Crossbench say Australia needs to ‘get cracking’ on Cop15 commitments
More reactions are coming in after the close of the biodiversity Cop15 – which leading scientists have called “vastly more important” than the Cop27 climate meeting, because it decides the “fate of the living world”.
We need to get cracking on implementation to deliver on commitments.
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It’s officially a week before Christmas, which means the forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology are fairly confident they can tell us what whether we can set up for an al fresco Christmas lunch or not.
For some parts of the country, there is a chance of showers:
Particularly in the south, we can get some volatile weather but all the patterns really starting to change as we move into later part of this week.
So we’ll see a weather system move through southern parts of the country, Thursday and Friday. Then a big high-pressure system behind it will quickly move into the Tasman Sea and then kind of sit there over the Christmas weekend into early the following week and normally that drives a lot of warm weather across much of southern parts of the country and our guidance is showing a similar pattern with that as well.
Continue reading...Warning comes as more than 130 people who ate range of contaminated fresh food items suffer symptoms including hallucinations and delirium
Australians are being urged not to seek out contaminated baby spinach products for a recreational high after more than 130 people who ate a range of fresh food items suffered symptoms including hallucinations and delirium.
Authorities were on Sunday night testing the weed believed to be responsible for the widespread recall of products containing spinach thought to have come from a farm in Victoria.
Riviera Fresh – Riviera Farms Baby Spinach
Fresh Salad Co – Fresh and Fast Stir Fry
Woolworths – Chicken Cobb Salad and Chickpea Falafel Salad
Continue reading...Sport governing body says ‘such behaviour has no place in Australian football’. This blog is now closed
‘We will look at the facts’
James Johnson is asked whether Melbourne Victory has any outstanding sanctions for past incidents. He says he is not aware of any but past events may be considered as an “aggravating factor” as an investigation into the incident unfolds:
There is no other suspended disciplinary action that I’m aware of, but what I will say is that we will be working through that today. We have already started working on the show cause process as of late last night, and we will be moving forward as quickly and swiftly as possible to finalise it, because it is important we get ahead of this issue as a sport.
What I can say is that we will look at the facts, we’ll look at it objectively and we will take a decision that we believe is in the overall best interest of the game but I prefer not to comment on the specifics of the outcome because we have to go through that process first.
What happened during the game last night and what happens with the result;
A “show cause letter” to Melbourne Victory;
An attempt to identify individuals involved in the pitch invasion.
This is an element that … infiltrates our game and tries to ruin it for the people who love us was in. We’ll be looking to weed out those people from the sport.
Continue reading...Victor Dominello says renters are at risk since there are ‘essentially no rules’, and enforceable guidelines will be in place early in the new year
New South Wales will introduce new guidelines on the personal data security of renters in a bid to crack down on cyber-attacks and identity fraud.
The rule change, announced by the state government on Saturday, will come into effect early next year and replace the need to give copies of documents in rental applications from passports to birth certificates.
Continue reading...Government proposal comes after clubs lobby criticised the lower rate imposed on casino operators
Poker machine earnings at New South Wales casinos will be taxed at the same rate as those in clubs and pubs under proposed changes by the state government, amid growing a push for broader gambling reforms.
If in place by next July, the proposed tax-rate changes could inject an extra $364m into the state’s coffers over three years, according to government modelling.
Continue reading...‘Elaborate and complex’ operation allegedly included more than 100 members and involved people being signed up and given fake email addresses
The New South Wales branch of the Liberal party has referred itself to the state’s election watchdog and is expelling about a half a dozen senior party members following an internal investigation into an allegedly “elaborate and complex” branch-stacking system.
The alleged branch-stacking operation is understood to have included more than 100 members, and involved people being signed up to the party and given fake email addresses in a process that may have been used to influence key votes on policy and preselections.
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