Category Archives: Canberra

Australian federal MPs warned to turn off phones when Chinese delegation visits Parliament House

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Liberal party senator calls Department of Parliamentary Services email ‘incredibly concerning’

Politicians and staff in parts of Parliament House have been urged to turn off their phones, laptops and internet during a visit by Chinese officials, with parliament administrators warning building occupants about interruptions to wifi service.

The shadow cybersecurity minister, Claire Chandler, called the warning “incredibly concerning”, saying the parliament advisory raised worries about threats to sensitive data.

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Multiple ACT schools shut after alert over asbestos in coloured sand products

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Testing and remediation to take place in 15 schools after a consumer safety recall was issued for coloured sand used in sensory play and arts and crafts

More than a dozen primary and preschools in the ACT have shut their doors, and a special school in Brisbane has made a snap closure, after an asbestos warning was issued for a range of colourful children’s sand products imported from China and sold at leading Australian retailers.

On Friday , the ACT’s education minister, Yvette Berry, confirmed 15 schools and six preschools would be fully closed, up from three earlier in the morning. Nine schools and preschools would be partially closed to multiple cohorts while testing and remediation took place.

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Albanese condemns Dutton’s pledge for mass public service cuts ‘only in Canberra’

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Opposition leader’s comments suggest close to two-thirds of capital’s public service roles – which include many key agencies – would be slashed

Peter Dutton has pledged to cut almost two-thirds of Canberra’s federal public servants if elected, in a move Anthony Albanese has criticised as “outrageous”.

In a testy press conference in Tasmania on Thursday morning, the opposition leader batted away questions about not visiting a single proposed nuclear power station site, as well as confusion over shifting positions on migration targets, tax breaks for electric vehicles and Coalition support for recognising West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

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What a $5,000 ticket will and won’t get you at one of Canberra’s budget night fundraising soirees

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As you decipher how the budget may alter your life on Tuesday night, your politicians will be raking in the cash by wining and dining donors and lobbyists

As you decipher how the federal budget may alter your life on Tuesday night, your politicians will be raking in the cash by wining and dining donors and lobbyists in Canberra.

This year’s budget night fundraisers – often concealed from the general public – could be something of a final hoorah. New laws capping campaign spending will soon make these budget night soirees less important, at least financially.

Tickets will have to be publicly disclosed as gifts, meaning there will be a record of those who sipped champagne with politicians and filled the party coffers. But these changes won’t apply until 2026. For now, the show goes on.

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Lehrmann inquiry head Walter Sofronoff engaged in ‘serious corrupt conduct’ , review finds

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Investigation by ACT integrity commission finds Sofronoff’s disclosure of confidential material to journalists amounted to corrupt conduct

The former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff engaged in “serious corrupt conduct”, the ACT integrity commission has found, after reviewing his inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann.

The report marks the latest development after Brittany Higgins went public with allegations that Lehrmann had raped her in Parliament House. The alleged incident has spawned a series of investigations and protracted legal battles.

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Littleproud says ‘hardly any’ public servant jobs to go under Coalition government in significant backdown

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It’s a change of pace for the Nationals leader who vowed to slash as many as 36,000 public servant jobs back in August 2024

The opposition has walked back its vow to slash tens of thousands of federal government jobs, suggesting a Dutton government, if elected, will make the bureaucracy more efficient through “natural attrition”.

The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said on Monday “hardly any” public service jobs will be on the chopping block if the Coalition were to win at the polls, in a significant backdown on comments in 2024 promising to dump as many as 36,000 public servants.

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New Year’s Eve fireworks 2024: the best places to watch NYE celebrations around Australia

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Night skies will light up on New Year’s Eve to welcome in 2025. Here’s your guide to child-friendly shows plus what time and where to see the fireworks in Sydney, Melbourne and across the country

Night skies across Australia will light up on New Year’s Eve to herald the beginning of 2025.

Whether you are in a capital city or regional town, there are fireworks displays scheduled early in the night – for children, and those wishing to hit the hay early – and at midnight, for people counting down to the new year.

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Man dies in Canberra river as life savers warn of elevated drowning risk over summer holidays

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The country has recorded more than 30 drowning deaths in December, including multiple fatalities over the weekend

A 21-year-old man has died while swimming in a river on Canberra’s southern edge, bringing the number of drowning deaths around Australia in December alone to more than 30.

The man was swimming in the Murrumbidgee River at Pine Island reserve, near Tuggeranong, with family and friends on Sunday afternoon but failed to resurface.

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Eastern Australia heatwave to make way for ‘volatile’ stormy weather

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Risk of blackouts has receded in Sydney, while a WA bushfire has prompted emergency evacuation in parts of Shire of Dandaragan

The heatwave baking much of eastern Australia will rapidly make way for conditions offering the “perfect ingredients” for thunderstorms later this week, raising risks of heavy rainfall and even flash floods.

Temperatures reached the high 30s across much of western Sydney on Tuesday with Penrith’s 39.7C the hottest – about 12C above the November average. Similar readings were forecast for Wednesday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

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Hobart, Darwin and Canberra ranked among top 10 global cities with lowest air pollution

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Sydney the worst-ranked Australian city at 150th, receiving a poorer score than London

Three Australian cities are among the top 10 global cities with the lowest levels of air pollution, according to analysis of nearly 400 cities worldwide.

Hobart (third), Darwin (fourth) and Canberra (10th) topped the list, based on air pollution data analysed by Auto Trader, an online vehicle trading site.

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Australian parliament still unsafe, Mark Butler says, after rape and stalking among 30 serious allegations reported to HR body

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New support service managed 339 cases of workplace wrongdoing in its first nine months, report shows

The health minister, Mark Butler, says Parliament House is still “an unsafe place to work” after figures revealed there were at least 30 instances of serious wrongdoing – including sexual assault and sexual harassment – reported to its new HR body in the past year.

The “deeply concerning” figures published in the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service’s first annual report, reported by Nine newspapers on Sunday, show it managed 339 cases between 1 October 2023 and 30 June 2024.

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Selfies, hugs and protests: King Charles’s new approach in spotlight during ‘fast and furious’ royal tour of Australia

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Issue of Aboriginal sovereignty front and centre during head of state’s whirlwind first visit

King Charles and Queen Camilla have left Australia after more than 30 official engagements – and a fair share of controversy – packed into just four full days on the ground.

In the stage-managed whirlwind were churchgoers, bushfire scientists, a violinist, authors, dancers, architects, chefs, surf life savers, schoolchildren, republicans and monarchists – and unscripted discordance as activists took up Aboriginal sovereignty directly with the crown.

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Australia news live: king meets Hephner the alpaca en route to war memorial; Sussan Ley declares purchase of Cessna plane

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King Charles III and Queen Camilla have greeted the crowd at the Australian War Memorial, shaking hands and high-fiving kids. Follow the day’s news live

Independent Kooyong MP responds to Victorian government rezoning plan

Monique Ryan, the federal member for Kooyong, was up on ABC News Breakfast earlier to discuss the Victorian government’s rezoning plan:

The announcement this weekend from the premier was for nine massive new developments just in the electorate of Kooyong. That’s huge. These could be up to 20 storeys high. Of course that will cause some concern from people who live in the area, who have chosen to live there, because it’s a beautiful part of the world.

We’re not saying we don’t want it, I think people in my part of the world are welcoming it. We’d also like some assurances from the government they will include social and affordable housing in these developments. We really don’t have any detail as of yet and that’s the stuff that’s missing at this point.

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King Charles’s visit puts the monarchy’s Australian future back in focus

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Hopeful Republicans are calling it the ‘farewell tour’, as the king toes the tried and tested constitutional line

As the king arrives in Australia for the first time as head of state, republican rumblings are once more on the media radar.

Will it be, as the Australian Republic Movement (ARM) optimistically opines, the monarchy’s “farewell tour”?

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King Charles has arrived in Australia for his first visit as monarch. Here’s where to see the royals

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Sydney and Canberra are on the royal couple’s itinerary, with opportunities for the public to see them between official functions

King Charles and Queen Camilla have touched down in Australia for the couple’s first visit to the country since Charles became its reigning monarch.

They were last in Australia in 2018, when then Prince Charles opened the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. This shorter, more compact tour will take in just Canberra and Sydney, with dozens of engagements packed into the pair’s four days on the ground.

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Flipping out: ACT Liberal leader Elizabeth Lee apologises for giving journalist middle finger on eve of election

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Elizabeth Lee gave one-fingered salute to reporter after leaders’ debate with chief minister Andrew Barr

The ACT Liberal leader, Elizabeth Lee, has apologised for raising her middle finger at a journalist after a heated news conference days out from the territory election, explaining it as a “moment of frustration” on the campaign trail.

The moment, captured by cameras at the news conference as the opposition leader walked off, was branded “extraordinary” by the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles.

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Sudden ‘period of leave’ for head of Department of Parliamentary Services

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Former anti-corruption commissioner steps in after Rob Stefanic announces decision to take leave

The head of the Department of Parliamentary Services has announced a sudden “period of leave”, leaving a former anti-corruption commissioner in charge of the department.

The secretary, Rob Stefanic, announced to staff in an email on Wednesday morning he had made a decision to “take a period of leave”.

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Canberra Liberal apologises for writing book that paints rosy colonisation picture and skips frontier wars

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One exercise in History of Australia, a student workbook and teaching manual, asks pupils to discuss how Aboriginal people were ‘blessed’ by the British coming

Peter Cain, the ACT’s shadow attorney general, has apologised “wholeheartedly” for a 2002 workbook he wrote which does not mention the frontier wars and paints a rosy picture of how Christian settlers helped First Nations peoples.

In History of Australia, a student workbook and teacher’s manual published by Light Educational Ministries, Cain wrote that when the British arrived, “some were afraid of the Aboriginals; some treated them badly”.

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Canberra shivers through coldest September morning ever as south-east Australia records freezing temperatures

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Capital’s weather falls to -6.9C on Monday while parts of inland NSW drop below zero and SA town has coldest September morning in more than 62 years

Much of Australia’s south-east shivered through freezing temperatures overnight, with another frosty morning forecast for Tuesday before temperatures warm back up.

Canberra marked its coldest September morning on record, reaching -6.9C on Monday. The previous September record of -6.8C was set 12 years ago in 2012.

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Canberra Health Services apologises for video that left endometriosis advocates ‘appalled’

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ACT government organisation deletes video that said endometriosis and arthritis were not conditions appropriate for emergency department

Canberra Health Services has removed a video it acknowledged was “not well executed and open to misinterpretation” after “appalled” advocates of endometriosis accused the government organisation of diminishing the acute pain of people living with endometriosis and arthritis.

The video, intended to provide an overview of how emergency departments worked as part of a larger health literacy campaign, has since been deleted from Canberra Health Services’ Instagram account. It is still visible on ABC News.

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