Category Archives: Australian police and policing

Women in NSW could check partners’ past domestic violence convictions under Coalition plan

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Premier says proposed Right to Ask scheme ‘all about ensuring that women across NSW are safe’

Residents of NSW would be able to find out if their partner has a history of domestic violence by checking with police, under a scheme proposed by the Coalition.

The NSW government revealed on Monday it would allow people in a relationship to access the domestic violence offending history of their partner if it wins the March state election.

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Two Victoria police officers charged with assault after allegedly injuring man during arrest

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The 58-year-old man was treated in hospital after the incident, which took place on 4 February last year

Two Victorian police officers have been charged with assault after they allegedly injured a man during an arrest.

The 58-year-old man was treated in hospital after the incident in Narre Warren South, in Melbourne’s south-east, on 4 February last year.

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Over 17,000 weapons surrendered in first year of Australian firearms amnesty

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Retrieved weapons include a Vietnam war-era flamethrower, sawn-off shotguns, rifles, gel blasters and revolvers

More than 17,000 weapons, including a Vietnam war-era flamethrower, were surrendered in the first year of Australia’s national permanent firearms amnesty.

States and territories struck an agreement with the Commonwealth in 2019 to establish an enduring amnesty allowing gun owners to hand in unregistered, illegal, or unwanted firearms without punishment or investigation.

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Tara shooting incident brings back Wieambilla memories for traumatised residents

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Four teenagers in custody after reports of shots fired in centre of Queensland town

Residents of Tara, in Queensland’s western downs, say a shooting incident on Wednesday afternoon has stoked trauma after last month’s murder of two police officers and a neighbour in nearby Wieambilla.

Four teenagers have been taken into custody after reports of shots being fired in the area at 3.30pm. Police declared an exclusion zone covering several blocks in the centre of town at 5.30pm.

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Four teenagers in custody after shots fired in southern Queensland town of Tara

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Police had declared an exclusion zone in the centre of Tara, 40km south of Wieambilla which saw a deadly ambush of police in December

Four teenagers have been taken into custody in a small town in south-east Queensland after reports of shots being fired in the area.

Police were called to reports of a shooting in Tara about 3.30pm on Wednesday and declared an exclusion zone covering several blocks in the centre of town at 5.30pm.

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Victoria rejects police calls for offence to replace public drunkenness

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Indigenous representatives celebrate decision not to replace law with police move-on powers

The daughter of Tanya Day, who died in custody after being arrested for being drunk on a train, has welcomed a decision by the Victorian government not to replace the state’s public intoxication laws with new move-on powers, despite opposition from the police union.

The government on Tuesday confirmed it would not give police any new powers to arrest people for being drunk in public once the existing offence is decriminalised in November 2023.

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Russell Hill seen ‘grumpy’ at Victorian campsite days before he and Carol Clay allegedly murdered, court told

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Witness also tells committal hearing for Greg Lynn, the man charged with their murders, that he saw a drone flying over site

A “grumpy old bugger” believed to be Russell Hill was seen speeding into a campsite in remote bushland in Victoria’s high country hours before he was allegedly murdered, a court has heard.

Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, went missing in March 2020 while camping in the Wonnangatta Valley, east of Melbourne.

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Warning over tropical swimming spots after tourist swept away at Mossman Gorge

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Call for closures from water safety researchers comes as police search for woman missing in far north Queensland waterway

Experts have called for popular tropical attractions to be closed when waterways reach dangerous conditions, after an incident at waterhole in far north Queensland.

The search for a 54-year-old woman, who was swept away in distress at Mossman Gorge, 68km north-west of Cairns, entered its fourth day on Monday, with police divers scouring the water for the missing tourist. She was last seen in the water on Friday.

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‘Almost beyond comprehension’: police investigate crash that killed four people in central Victoria

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Two drivers in hospital after alleged ‘high-speed accident’ at four-way intersection near Shepparton

Police are investigating whether some passengers of a car were wearing seatbelts at the time of an alleged high-speed crash between two vehicles that resulted in the deaths of four people in central Victoria.

Those killed were passengers in a Peugeot that collided with a Toyota Hilux ute at an intersection at Pine Lodge, near Shepparton, on Wednesday afternoon.

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‘This is a tragedy’: off-duty NSW police officer rescued teenage son before drowning

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Man, 45, was caught in a rip after getting his 14-year-old son to safety at a beach on the state’s south coast

An off-duty police officer who drowned at a beach on the New South Wales south coast had swum out to rescue his own son from a “substantial” rip, police say.

The man, who has not been named, had entered the water at a beach south of Narooma after his 14-year-old son was caught in a rip on Sunday.

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Investigation to begin into ‘terrifying’ New Year’s Eve crowd crush in Melbourne

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More than 100 people were reportedly caught in a pedestrian underpass just before midnight

Authorities will investigate a “terrifying” crowd crush that occurred in a pedestrian tunnel in the centre of Melbourne on New Year’s Eve, with revellers saying they felt “totally wedged” and “couldn’t move in any direction”.

A City of Melbourne spokesperson said the council was aware of the safety concerns raised about the incident at the Elizabeth Street pedestrian underpass shortly before the midnight fireworks on Saturday.

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Advocates call for urgent action after two ‘incredibly tragic’ Aboriginal deaths in custody

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Linda Burney says rates of Indigenous incarceration and deaths in custody 30 years after royal commission are a ‘national shame’

Advocates say the “heartbreaking” deaths of two Aboriginal people in custody within days of each other in Western Australia over Christmas should jolt state and federal governments into urgent action.

A 41-year-old First Nations woman died in a Perth hospital on Christmas Eve after suffering a “medical episode” in Wandoo rehabilitation prison 13 days earlier.

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Queensland accused of ‘kneejerk’ response in announcing new penalties for young offenders

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Annastacia Palaszczuk announces ‘tougher’ youth crime penalties three days after death of Queensland woman Emma Lovell

Youth crime experts have criticised the Queensland government for announcing a suite of “tough” penalties for young offenders in response to the alleged killing of a woman in her home north of Brisbane on Boxing Day, describing it as a “kneejerk reaction” that will not reduce crime.

Annastacia Palaszczuk made the announcement on Thursday, amid media calls for action in response to the death of 41-year-old Emma Lovell.

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Queensland government defends bail laws amid concerns over youth crime after Emma Lovell’s death

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Cheryl Scanlon says youth crime is ‘complex’ while police minister says number of young people denied bail is proof of tough stance

The Queensland government is facing pressure to tighten its already strict bail laws after two teenagers were arrested for the alleged murder of 41-year-old mother Emma Lovell.

Lovell, originally from Suffolk in the UK, was stabbed in the chest at her home in North Lakes in Moreton Bay on Boxing Day, during an alleged home invasion.

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Queensland police investigate officer for allegedly allowing man to pepper spray himself at party

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Authorities did not confirm if they were charging anybody over use of the restricted spray, which was posted on social media

Queensland police are investigating an officer who allegedly provided a man with pepper spray and allowed him to deploy it on himself.

In a video seen by Guardian Australia, a sole officer stands next to a young man at a pool party and watches him handle a can of pepper spray.

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Missing since Christmas: three WA children survive car crash that killed parents

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The children, aged five, two and two months, were found alive at the crash scene near their Kondinin home

A couple who went missing with their three young children on Christmas Day has been found dead after their car crashed in country Western Australia, police have confirmed.

Their children, aged five, two and two months old, were found alive at the scene of the crash. The two-month-old baby has suffered serious injuries, police say.

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Call for dating apps to require criminal checks as Australian government plans summit on safety

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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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Experts question decision to not deem Queensland shooting ‘domestic terror’

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Police say there’s ‘nothing really to indicate’ that the Wieambilla shooting could be classified as terrorism

Experts have questioned why Queensland police have resisted classifying the murder of two police officers in Wieambilla as terrorism, amid evidence that the shooters had been inspired by fundamentalist Christianity and conspiracy theories.

Queensland deputy police commissioner Tracy Linford on Thursday said the murder of constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold on a remote property was not deemed an act of domestic terror because there was no evidence of a connection to any “particular group”.

“We are certainly not classing it as a domestic terror event. At this point there’s nothing really to indicate that,” Linford said.

“What we can see is sentiment displayed by the three individuals – the three Train family members – that appears anti-government, anti-police, conspiracy theorist-type things.

“But we can’t see them connected to any particular group that they might have been working with or inspired them to do anything. We haven’t located anything like that at this point in time.”

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Australian gun databases plagued by inconsistencies, Hoddle Street massacre detective says

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Graham Kent, who investigated the 1987 shooting, says national register stalled because of ‘competitions between jurisdictions’

A former police officer who investigated Melbourne’s Hoddle Street massacre has joined the push for a genuine national firearms register amid concerns about an existing database that experts says is hindered by inconsistencies between jurisdictions.

The deadly shooting of two young police officers and a neighbour on a remote Queensland property last week has sparked renewed calls for an overhaul of Australia’s firearms databases and the creation of a centralised register.

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Union fury over Labor decision to split aged care pay rises – as it happened

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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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