Category Archives: Indigenous Australians

‘Sea-country’ alliance could push traditional owners closer to mining industry, critics say

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National Sea Country Alliance Summit told that the agendas of environmental groups do not always align with First Nations priorities

An alliance formed by traditional owners to fight for their “sea-country” rights after court wins against Santos’s $5bn Barossa offshore gas project is set to sideline environmental groups, critics say.

More than 100 First Nations people met in Darwin for a two-day summit this week so traditional owner groups with responsibility for sea-country – particularly country that intersects with proposed offshore oil and gas projects – could discuss their rights and responsibilities “in the face of increased offshore energy proposals”.

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Optus confirms ‘network event’ behind outage – as it happened

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Rowland: ‘consumers were clearly frustrated with lack of information’ over outage

Rowland says the key issue of the Optus outage was “getting some more understanding of the nature of the problem”. She tells ABC TV:

I made it clear from the outset that consumers were clearly frustrated with the lack of information. Australians are reasonable people. They understand that things need to be resolved and that may take some time, but the key issue here was getting some understanding of the nature of the problem, how long it may take and what the impacts would be.

And I think it goes to the issue of how reliant we are on our digital devices and connectivity overall, including for consuming messages and news media. And, in this case, the broadcasting platforms were there to be utilised and I did encourage Optus to do that as well.

It’s important, I believe, to have a post-incident review that is both thorough in scope but also is completed expeditiously and goes to the precise issues of what has caused this, considering the considerable amount of disruption, the distress it has caused, but also the economic impact as well. And to understand what [can] be done in future by the sector as a whole to take the lesson and mitigate that going forward.

So this is important, because Australians expect that there will be follow-up, that there will be lessons learned. But, importantly for the sector as a whole, it’s important to understand how this can be certainly avoided in future.

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Australia news live: Optus network outage ‘root cause’ unclear as services slowly return; NAB lifts variable home loan rate after RBA hike

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Victoria’s Northern Health phone lines affected by Optus outage

Northern Health in Melbourne said all phone lines into its campuses are affected by the current Optus outage.

This includes phone lines into Northern hospital Epping, Broadmeadows hospital, Bundoora Centre, Craigieburn Centre, Kilmore district hospital, and [the] Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED).

We apologise for any inconvenience.

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Australia news live: RBA tipped to hike interest rates today; last day of PM’s China visit; Melbourne Cup 2023

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A record level of stressed households are projected as economists tip Melbourne Cup Day interest rate rise. Follow the day’s news live

The government services minister, Bill Shorten, was also asked about the Reserve Bank’s upcoming decision on interest rates later today.

He acknowledged the Reserve Bank is independent of the government but said “I hope it stays static”:

[I] just know a lot of mortgage holders are doing it tough, but the bank will make its decision independently.

For the Albanese government, we know that inflation is a cost of living issue. We have put in a whole heap of measures from childcare to parental leave and energy support. People are doing it tough at the moment, I think it’s hard out there.

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‘The Uluru statement stands’: key yes campaigners to keep working towards Indigenous voice

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Referendum ‘shifted Australia in the right direction’ despite failure in vote, one advocate says, as Indigenous leaders privately debate next steps

Key campaigners for the Indigenous voice referendum say their support for the Uluru statement from the heart still stands and they will keep working towards a voice to parliament, with the official yes organisation to continue advocating for First Nations issues.

Despite the failure of the 14 October vote, yes campaigner Thomas Mayo said the referendum and campaign had “shifted Australia in the right direction”. The federal Labor government is still considering its next agenda in Indigenous affairs policy, but architects of the yes campaign say they will continue calling for truth, treaty and voice policies.

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Doctor banned for 12 months after sending racist email to Australia’s first Indigenous eye surgeon

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Yuggera, Warangoo and Wiradjuri doctor Kristopher Rallah-Baker says it’s important others ‘see they won’t be brought down if they complain about racism’

A GP has been banned from registering as a doctor for a year in Australia because of discriminatory behaviour toward an Indigenous doctor he accused of being a “fake Aboriginal” akin to “like a watered down bottle of Grange”.

The medical board described the decision as a “landmark outcome” as it is the first case to make reference to changes in the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) national law introduced last year to include a definition of cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

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WA town stops using Wiggles song to deter homeless people; Paul Keating lauds Bill Hayden at state funeral – as it happened

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Husic was on the show to discuss the results of the AI Safety Summit held in the UK this week, where Australia and 27 other countries signed a major artificial intelligence agreement.

The Bletchley Declaration affirms that AI should be developed, designed and deployed in a human-centric and safe manner.

It has been very clear from a number of countries, not the least of which the US, which brought in a big executive order this week to improve AI safety and security, that there will be more safety testing and also evaluating those AI models, and holding companies much more accountable for the way that they do that development work.

There will be safety institutes set up in the US and the UK to help with that testing and it will involve researchers in that work and a state of the science report that will look at the developments particularly around what they call frontier AI, generative AI and Australia will have a voice there with the CSIRO’s chief scientist, Dr Bronwyn Fox, who will represent our country in the development of that research work to give governments and regulators a heads up on how the technology is evolving too.

I have been concerned for weeks about where things would head. I was concerned that innocent Palestinian families would bear the brunt and the heaviest burden, in terms of the type of action that was being foreshadowed.

I think the world, the international community, is watching very closely. I have said previously there has to be a much more strategic, precise way to hold Hamas to account. Israel’s actions do matter, in terms of the way in which they conduct these military operations, and I think a lot of us are deeply concerned about the impact, not only on innocent Palestinians but particularly kids.

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Scrap blue cards for First Nations kinship carers, Queensland family and child commissioner says

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Damning report finds state’s blue card screening system creates unnecessary barriers to placing children with their families

Queensland’s family and child commissioner has called for blue card requirements to be scrapped for First Nations kinship carers after a report found the system relies on “irrelevant information, overpolicing and subjective assessments”.

Since 2001, Queenslanders who work around children have needed to obtain a blue card, with offences including drug trafficking, murder and child abuse disqualifying a person from obtaining one. But a report by the Queensland Family & Child Commission (QFCC) found blue cards create additional barriers to placing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with their families.

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Indigenous voice defeat doesn’t mean voters want assimilation, Albanese says

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PM says he hopes there’s a retreat from ‘rhetorical positions’ on social issues, adding family violence is not ‘confined to one section of the population’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the government will “push back” on Coalition calls to promote assimilation of Indigenous communities in the wake of the voice referendum, saying the vote’s defeat is not an endorsement of such policies.

Albanese also appeared to take a swipe at the Coalition’s calls for inquiries into social issues in Indigenous communities, saying family violence is not “confined to one section of the population”.

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Wiggles ‘deeply disappointed’ over use of Hot Potato to deter homeless people – as it happened

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Watts has gone on to confirm that there are still 65 Australians stuck in Gaza that the government is “supporting” and are being provided consular assistance.

Watts says Dfat is working to get those individuals to the Rafah crossing and out of Gaza “as soon as possible”.

We know this is an incredibly distressing time for Australians in Gaza and their families and we are providing all possible support we can, communicating through all available channels the best information and options we have about their safety in a very difficult situation.

The circumstances on the ground are incredibly challenging and they are changing on a day to day basis. This is a conflict zone. It is a very difficult operating environment so we do the best job we can in the circumstances.

Crossings like this are the result of an enormous effort from Australian consular officials and diplomats in the region. So many conversations at the ministerial level, foreign minister Wong spoke with her counterparts in the region and we’re grateful that this initial cohort has made the crossing from Gaza to Egypt.

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Fires in Queensland tropics – as it happened

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The NSW RFS has confirmed that just after 4am this morning one of its firefighting tanks rolled over 10km south of Jennings in the Tenterfield LGA.

A spokesperson said there were four firefighters on board. They were all taken from the truck, with three being taken to hospital for observation.

They’ve said they’ll be returning to bulk billing, or many of them who are considering a change would stick with bulk billing, for those more than 11 million Australians.

That’s about 60% or more of the throughput of the average general practice. So it’s a huge boost in confidence and funding to a sector that I think is probably in its most powerless status been in the 40 year history of Medicare.

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Victorian government scrambling to prepare for long-planned end of public drunkenness laws

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Sobering-up facility not completed, emergency workers unclear about their role in new scheme – and it begins on Melbourne Cup Day

It’s been almost six years since Tanya Day hopped on a train to Melbourne but never made it to the city.

The 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman was arrested for being drunk in public on 5 December 2017 after she fell asleep. She was placed in a police cell to sober up, suffered a head injury and later died.

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Australia news live: ‘that’s a question for Keating,’ Albanese says when queried on former PM’s abstention from Israel-Hamas statement

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PM also acknowledged ‘tragic’ Queensland bushfires on Tuesday, warning pf ‘difficult summer’. Follow the day’s news live

Fire at Tara ‘remains uncontained’, QFES acting deputy commissioner says

QFES acting deputy commissioner Joanne Greenfield also spoke to Sunrise this morning, and provided an update on the bushfire at Tara:

The Tara fire is quite large now and still remains uncontained in most of its edges.

Crews have been down there working overnight trying to strengthen the control line and try to bring areas of it into containment.

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Australia was not big enough to vote for the voice, says Stan Grant

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The Indigenous journalist and academic says he and other yes supporters were cast as ‘troublemakers’ for speaking about justice

Journalist and academic Stan Grant has spoken of his feelings of disappointment and rejection at the defeat of the Indigenous voice referendum, critical that public figures who talk about racism in Australia are characterised as “troublemakers” in media discourse.

The Wiradjuri man lamented the referendum loss as a missed opportunity to better help Indigenous people, saying current political processes are “not enough” to address disadvantage. In a speech to the Australian National University on Monday, Grant was critical of the no campaign’s attacks on the voice, but also questioned the yes campaign’s strategy.

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Penny Wong urges Australians in Lebanon to ‘consider leaving’ – As it happened

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Pay deal averts six-day strike by dairy workers

A looming strike at one of Victoria’s major milk companies has been averted after the processor struck a pay deal with the union.

There is some concern around Mount Isa, and we are looking at what we can do to support that area being so remote in the western part of our state.

So looking at the weather we have today, still very extreme fire danger in the western part of Queensland. We are certainly looking at another challenging day.

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Paul Keating says voice referendum was ‘wrong fight’ and has ‘ruined the game’ for a treaty

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Exclusive: Former PM accuses John Howard and Tony Abbott of ‘outrageously and wilfully misinterpreting’ result in attempt to return to ‘great assimilation project’

Indigenous Australians were always “fighting the wrong fight” with a voice to parliament, the former prime minister Paul Keating has said, and the failure of the referendum has now “ruined the game” for a treaty that could have properly acknowledged prior Indigenous ownership and dispossession.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, Keating accused the former Liberal prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, and the historian Geoffrey Blainey, of “outrageously and wilfully misinterpreting” the referendum result in an attempt to return to “the great assimilation project”.

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Australia news live: devastation revealed in Queensland bushfire aftermath

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There is ‘a lot of anxiety’ in the Western Downs where at least 16 houses have been destroyed, the mayor says. Follow the day’s news live

Civilians in the blockaded Gaza Strip will receive an extra $15m in humanitarian aid from the Australian government.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement at a joint press conference with US president Joe Biden.

The plaintiff served years in prison that he otherwise would not have. At no stage did Victoria Police take positive steps to remedy its wrongdoing by expeditiously informing the plaintiff of Gobbo’s conduct in order to quash his conviction. Victoria Police has not apologised to the plaintiff.

Starting this court case is a significant moment for me. I am anxious about the future but also cautiously optimistic about finally holding police to account for what they did to me.

In the pursuit of justice, vindication came first, and now I see compensation as a measure of accountability.

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NSW Aboriginal affairs minister says it was his ‘aspiration’ to legislate treaty this term

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David Harris insists Labor has not backflipped despite government delaying action until after next election

The New South Wales Aboriginal affairs minister, David Harris, says it had been his “aspiration” to legislate a treaty process with Indigenous people within the current term of parliament before Chris Minns announced it would be delayed.

Harris nevertheless insisted Labor had not backflipped on its reconciliation plans and remained committed to holding a consultation process that would inform a possible treaty.

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Eight more Australians leave West Bank – as it happened

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Military deployment to Middle East will be for evacuation of Australians

Defence minister Richard Marles was asked on Today what the role of the aircraft and troops sent to the Middle East would be.

We’ve made our position really clear.

Israel has a right to defend itself and to move against Hamas. What is absolutely essential in doing that is that the protection from the centre and and all the steps that Israel takes, and that the rules of war are adhered to and we’ve been making that very clear, as well.

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NSW police watchdog routinely denied access to internal officer interviews, report finds

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Law Enforcement Conduct Commission says it has been refused access during ‘every critical incident investigation to date’

The New South Wales police watchdog is routinely refused access to interview rooms when officers are being questioned after critical incidents, in a practice the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) has described as “consistent and state-wide”.

Despite the LECC Act providing power for investigators to be present as observers when officers are interviewed by superiors over such incidents, the oversight body said the power “appears to be … illusory” in its annual report handed down on Monday afternoon.

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