Category Archives: New South Wales

NSW’s refusal to allow UN inspectors in prisons ‘raises questions’, human rights commissioner says

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Lorraine Finlay says state government’s decision means Australia is ‘failing to live up to the promises it made to the world’

Australia’s human rights commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, has questioned why the New South Wales government was blocking officials from the United Nations inspecting its jails if it was confident about meeting minimum standards.

She said the NSW move could jeopardise promises made by Australia as part of the UN’s Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (Opcat) that was ratified by the federal government under former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017.

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Victoria floods: Thousands of homes to be inundated or cut off as some swollen rivers peak on Monday

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Former quarantine facility in Mickleham to act as a shelter and more than 100 schools to be closed

The shuttered Mickleham quarantine facility is being turned into a flood recovery centre amid Victoria’s worsening flood crisis, with thousands of homes expected to be inundated or cut off and some rivers not expected to reach their peak until Monday.

Approximately 6,000 properties were without power on Sunday and more than 9,000 people had already applied for emergency support payments.

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Australia news live: 120 schools to be closed on Monday amid Victorian flood crisis

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Residents in Victoria’s north told to move to higher ground; Anthony Albanese and 100 ADF personnel on the ground as situation worsens. Follow live

Federal government ‘in conversation’ with NSW about Warragamba dam wall

King is asked about how the infrastructure spend is being divvied up with New South Wales clearly getting less than Labor-lead states. King says the decisions were based on the projects that had been submitted to the federal government ahead of the budget.

We will work with the New South Wales government as we lead into the May budget.

Of course we will look at it. At this stage we don’t have enough information from the New South Wales government on which to make a decision.

There is back and forth between Infrastructure Australia and the New South Wales department and I haven’t seen any of that yet.

This is for the early works of this project. We haven’t made any further commitments. We will talk to the Victorians around that as we go forward. They have an election they are facing and this will be a contested project, I’m sure, but something we have confidence in.

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NSW Labor pledges to boost transport and teaching staff ahead of 2023 election bid

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Chris Minns has promised to build a local fleet of trains to replace the state’s ageing stock and 10,000 extra fixed teaching roles

New South Wales Labor leader Chris Minns has looked to galvanise party faithful 160 days out from the state election in March 2023.

He used a speech to a NSW Labor conference to promise a locally built fleet of trains to replace NSW’s ageing rail stock and 10,000 extra teachers.

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Coogee beach among NSW swimming spots with ‘poor’ water quality amid La Niña deluge

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Twice the number of sites have been exposed to concerning levels of pollution and sewage since 2019, government report finds

One in five swimming spots in New South Wales have been rated as having “poor” or “very poor” pollution levels, including Sydney’s popular Coogee beach, after the state experienced its wettest summer in a decade.

Twice the number of beaches, lakes and lagoons have been exposed to concerning levels of pollution and sewage since 2019, according to the annual state of the beaches report released by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

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Victoria floods: Shepparton and Mooroopna ‘too late to leave’ as man found dead in Rochester backyard

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Victorian authorities warn flooded rivers yet to peak and prepare for one of the largest evacuation operations in the state’s history

The emergency flood situation in Victoria’s north has intensified as authorities warn it is “too late to leave” for many.

Evacuation alerts have been upgraded for Shepparton, Orrvale, Kialla West and Mooroopna to reflect it is too late for residents to leave those areas.

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Man dies in Victorian town of Rochester and Shepparton told to evacuate – as it happened

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More than 500 Victorian homes damaged and 500 others cut off in flooding. This blog is now closed

Jonathan How from the Bureau of Meteorology has spoken to ABC News about the severe weather, saying the heavy rain has cleared in southern Victoria and Tasmania.

Overnight we did see rainfall totals of 5-15 millimetres across parts of southern Victoria and Tasmania, but the good news is that the heavy rain has cleared but we are seeing ongoing flooding for New South Wales and Victoria.

First in Melbourne, flood warnings out for the Maribyrnong and Werribee rivers. Keep following the advice of local police and SES, but at tension is very much through the northern and inland parts of Victoria.

The north and the north-west of Tasmania had the highest level of rainfall. Record-breaking rainfall over the previous few days. That rainfall accumulated at altitude and made its way down the landscape into the riverine.

The last flooding of significance was in 2016, but the rainfall in 2022 we’ve experienced has exceeded a lot of those values and has been far-reaching by comparison to that previous event.

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Unlicensed driver who killed two young brothers walking home from NSW pool jailed for 13 years

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Shane and Sheldon Shorey, aged six and seven, died after Jacob Steven Donn crashed a car in Wellington, in central west NSW, while he was drug-affected

A driver who caused the deaths of two young brothers returning home from the local swimming pool in regional New South Wales has been jailed by a judge who said cars were not playthings.

As a mother and four boys walked along a footpath after visiting the pool in Wellington, she saw an out-of-control red Commodore heading straight for them.

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Covid quarantine centre to reopen for flood evacuees – as it happened

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Daniel Andrews says 500 homes have been flooded and another 500 have been isolated. This blog is now closed

An estimated 500 homes are flooded in Victoria with number expected to grow: Daniel Andrews

Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has been on ABC radio Melbourne this morning, providing listeners with an update on the floods.

Obviously this has been a very, very significant flood event and it’s far from over. There’s a little bit more rainfall but as that weather event passes through, the real challenge is waters continuing to rise and more and more houses being inundated, more and more communities being closed off, becoming isolated, then of course we move to clean up and all of those issues.

We think there’s about 500 homes that are flooded, we think there are another 500 that have been isolated across the state. But I would just say they’re very early estimates and the aerial intelligence gathering choppers are up in the air now ... they’ll be doing all their reports back to the state control centre. So I’d say those numbers are absolutely certain to grow. And indeed, we’re still asking people to leave in some areas. There have been important, important evacuation notices have been issued in a number of communities. So those numbers will go up. That’s why we’ve got nine important relief centres opening and 50 sandbag collection points. There’s an enormous amount of work going on.

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More than half of NSW MPs own more than one property

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High ownership of multiple residences among state MPs has prompted accusations they are ‘blind’ to the escalating rental crisis

More than half of MPs in the New South Wales lower house own multiple residential properties, prompting concerns the state’s politicians are “blind” to record increases in rental prices.

Amid a fresh push for reform to the rental market, an analysis of MP disclosure records show landlords are disproportionately represented on Macquarie Street.

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Australia news live: Victoria and Tasmania hit by flooding; NT triple murderer sentenced to life in jail

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Seventy flood warnings in place across Victoria, with 10,000 people without power and 40 schools and childcare centres shut. Follow the day’s news live

‘Walk the talk Labor’: Spender urges government to help households decarbonise

Independent MP Allegra Spender has taken to social media to urge the Albanese government to take action supporting Australian households as they decarbonise:

Our families and businesses are hurting. Sovereign risk is not a defence when the super profits are being made because of a war.

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Covid outbreak on Ruby Princess ‘not an accident’ and cruise should never have sailed, court told

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Operators reject class action claims it was ‘negligent’ for ship to sail as it had insufficient medical supplies to combat an outbreak

The companies operating the Ruby Princess cruise ship have rejected allegations they were responsible for the 2020 Covid outbreak that led to the deaths of 28 people.

Charterer Carnival and shipowner Princess Cruise Lines are facing a class action in Australia’s federal court over the outbreak.

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‘We’re not lying down on this one’: John Barilaro to fight assault charge in court

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Former NSW deputy premier’s lawyer pleads not guilty on his client’s behalf over altercation with freelance cameraman

Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro will contest charges he assaulted a news camera operator and damaged equipment, a court has been told.

Barilaro, 50, was not required to appear at Manly Local Court on Wednesday when his lawyer entered pleas of not guilty on the former Nationals leader’s behalf.

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Police urge drivers to stay off flooded roads after NSW man dies in submerged car

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Death of 46-year-old south of Bathurst comes as New South Wales and Victoria brace for heavy rain and severe weather

Police have urged motorists not to drive into flooded roads after the body of a missing man was found in his submerged vehicle in New South Wales’ central west.

The death of the 46-year-old comes as much of NSW braces for further deluges, with more than 100 flood warnings in place.

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Teacher vacancies hit 2,000 across NSW as some schools record 14 unfilled roles

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Department of Education figures show permanent vacancies were far higher than reported in June 2021

The number of permanent teacher vacancies in New South Wales surged past 2,000 in July, with some schools looking for more than a dozen new staff amid an ongoing stoush between the union and the government over pay and conditions.

Department of Education figures from July, which were contained in a briefing to the state’s education minister, Sarah Mitchell, and seen by Guardian Australia, revealed two schools had up to 14 full-time-equivalent roles vacant.

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Man shot dead by police in Brisbane – as it happened

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Queensland police say officers had been called to Edmonstone Street in South Brisbane around 3pm. This blog is now closed

Treasurer says surging electricity costs will make inflation ‘hang around longer’

We brought you the grim news on the blog yesterday that the head of Alinta energy has predicated a 35% increase to retail electricity bills next year, as energy providers juggle phasing out fossil fuels alongside investment in renewables.

I think one of the reasons this inflation will hang around longer than we want it to is because there are expectations around these electricity price rises being more problematic for longer.

You’ve said the government would put the economy above politics, can you really say that’s what you doing if you leave the stage-three tax cuts in place as they are?

I can say that, and I think what people will see in the budget in two weeks’ time is some difficult decisions in difficult times.

Our job is to make sure that our budgets are perfectly calibrated to the economic conditions as we confront them.

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NSW stamp duty overhaul ‘vanilla’ but could help first home buyers cut costs

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Annual tax could be paid for almost 20 years before it equalled the value of a stamp duty payment in parts of western Sydney, calculator suggests

First home buyers could save tens of thousands of dollars under the New South Wales government’s proposal for an optional land tax but housing experts say the “vanilla” plan falls well short of the “revolution” it had initially promised.

On Monday the government said it would introduce its plans for an overhaul of stamp duty into the state’s parliament this week.

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Australia news live: increased risk of floods, tropical cyclones and heatwaves, long-range forecast warns

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The Bureau of Meteorology has released its long-range forecast for Australia’s coming severe weather season. Follow all the day’s news live

‘It’s time to move on now’: Tanya Plibersek on Andrew Thorburn saga

On Sunrise, environment minister Tanya Plibersek was asked about a war of words between Victoria premier Daniel Andrews and Andrew Thorburn, the would-be CEO of Essendon who resigned following criticism about his role as chairman of City on a Hill.

When it comes to rampant homophobia, when I lead the pride march every year, I do that with a sense of genuine concern, support and commitment.

I think the important thing here is that the fellow in question has resigned from the position, it really is a matter for the football club. It seems like they are moving on from a national perspective, the government is committed to making sure that we introduce religious discrimination laws, as we said we would. I think it’s time to move on now.

I think that his personal views should be separated from the overarching views of the church that he is involved with … I’m in the Catholic Church, it doesn’t mean I believe in every tenet of the Catholic Church. This is completely out of order and Mr Thorburn should get his job back. The whole thing looks like a total mess.

I think you always look back and think I could have done this or not. I tried to do as much as I could as prime minister in the sense that every day was precious, every day we were trying to drive big reforms forward. On sexism and misogyny I specifically regret not calling it out earlier.

I had thought when I first became prime minister that the maximum reaction to me being the first woman would be in the early days and it would wash away … I was clearly wrong on that. Knowing what I know now it was going to gather and get worse. Potentially if I called it out earlier it could have been a bit easier. You never get to run the control test in politics.

I think things have changed, I think it’s impossible to imagine a prominent woman in Australian politics would be called the things I was without it having huge negative consequences today … but we’ve still got a way to go.

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Revealed: How Stuart Ayres drove the plan for Penrith’s even more ambitious new stadium

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Exclusive: documents show the former minister pushed for the compulsory acquisition of Penrith Paceway for a new stadium to be built in his seat

The former NSW sports minister Stuart Ayres was centrally involved in persuading the state government to pursue the controversial compulsory acquisition of the Penrith harness racing paceway site to allow for the construction of a new stadium next door for the Penrith Panthers, rather than the $309m rebuild originally planned.

The acquisition order was announced in July, despite the government putting the upgrades of other suburban stadiums on the backburner, citing acute budget pressures.

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NSW weather: rain subsides but heavy falls expected midweek

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Dozens of rivers still flooding and evacuation orders in place across state as reprieve from rain set to be short-lived

Rain has eased over much of New South Wales but dozens of rivers are still flooding and evacuation orders are in place as authorities forecast another rain system to arrive midweek.

People across the state were forced to flee their homes over the weekend amid rising flood waters and thousands of others are poised to leave if ordered as dams spill and river peaks move downstream.

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