The WA cops rounding up Indigenous kids: a ‘toxic and racist environment’

The police stories: Two former Western Australian and NSW officers speak out about what they saw during their time in uniform

One of the worst moments of Jim Taylor’s eight-year career as a Western Australian police officer was the day he strip-searched a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy.

Taylor, now 44, was working in Perth in the Juvenile Aid Group, or “Jag”. He says he was driving around the city’s central business district with his senior sergeant and two other officers when they came across a group of four young Aboriginal kids. They rounded them up and took them back to the station.

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Australia news live: NSW records five new locally acquired Covid cases as Qld records one

NSW premier concerned over low testing levels as state grapples with growing number of mystery cases; partner of a Brisbane hotel quarantine cleaner who contracted new Covid-19 strain tests positive. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

Two Emirates flight attendants are in isolation in Australia after testing positive to Covid-19 on Sunday, two days after Australia introduced mandatory quarantining and testing of international flight crews.

The positive tests were included in Monday’s numbers.

The crew members identified as positive cases are being managed per usual processes and remain in Australia.

Since the incoming Emirates flight EK430 from Dubai to Brisbane was serviced by the same crew, as per the airline’s safety protocols the remaining crew members were determined to be close contacts. As a precautionary measure, the decision was therefore made to cancel flight EK431 from Brisbane to Dubai for the safety of its passengers.

The health and safety of our crew, customers and communities remains our top priority, and we continue to work closely with all relevant authorities to implement the latest health and safety protocols.

And just when you thought acting prime minister Michael McCormack’s controversial day was over, he has now used the controversial right-wing phrase “all lives matter” at a press conference when discussing the “black lives matter” protests.

The Nationals leader has come under fire today and yesterday for comparing the insurrection at the Capitol building by far-right rioters to the Black Lives Matter protest and riots earlier in the year.

I abhor violence of any form. The Black Lives Matter protests, as at mid-last year, cost 19 lives. That’s 19 lives that should not have been lost. I’m not going to apologise because I said that violence in any form should not happen, from a protest...

I appreciate there are a lot of people out there who are being a bit bleeding heart about this and who are confecting outrage, but they should know those lives matter too. All lives matter.

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Australia’s state by state Covid restrictions and coronavirus lockdown rules explained

What are the restrictions in Brisbane since a worker tested positive to the UK strain of Covid-19? Do I have to wear a mask and how do Victoria’s border closures with NSW and Queensland work? Untangle Australia’s Covid-19 laws and guidelines with our guide

Australian states and territories have different levels of restrictions to contain Covid-19.

Here we answer some common questions about restrictions in each state, based on the information available as of 8 January.

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Tony Mokbel conviction quashed as fallout from Lawyer X scandal rumbles on

Drug baron remains in jail while he appeals other guilty verdicts citing involvement of lawyer-turned-police informant Nicola Gobbo

Little time was wasted on pleasantries during the first meeting between the gangland lawyer Nicola Gobbo and the police officers who were handling her as an informant in 2005.

“Tell us everything you know about Tony Mokbel,” was how the police handler known as Mr White started the meeting.

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Sydney Mardi Gras members vote against banning police from 2021 parade

Activist group Pride in Protest says presence of police makes Indigenous people feel unsafe

A controversial bid to remove police and prison officer floats from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has failed at the event’s annual general meeting.

But, in a strong anti-police statement, Saturday’s motion attracted 44% of the votes, drawing 261 votes in favour. Three hundred and twenty-seven members voted against it.

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Townsville man charged with pursuing teenagers in stolen car until they crashed

Police say armed man tried to box in the car and chase the teenagers in a pursuit that could have ‘easily ended in tragedy’

A man armed with a tyre iron pursued a stolen car driven by young teenagers until they crashed into a power pole in Townsville, police say.

On Saturday night about 10pm, police say a 48-year-old man was driving along McLean Street in the suburb of Gulliver, when he saw a Hyundai Santa Fe that had been stolen from the neighbouring suburb of Aitkenvale.

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Forbidden fruit: Australian police seize half a tonne of cocaine hidden in banana pulp

Police allege Mark De Hesselle collected 139 boxes of the pulp and searched through them to remove the drug

A Sydney man is facing life in prison after federal police intercepted cocaine worth $248m concealed in frozen fruit products from Brazil.

AFP and Border Force officers seized 552kg of the drug hidden in pallets of banana pulp and branded with koala pictures in Sydney on Friday.

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Telstra denies Victoria police requested Graham Ashton’s phone records for hotel quarantine inquiry

Phone records of former police chief considered crucial in investigation to determine who made the decision to use private security guards

Victoria police never formally requested Telstra provide ex-police chief Graham Ashton’s phone records to help the hotel quarantine inquiry uncover who made the decision to use private security guards in the botched program, Guardian Australia can reveal.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Victoria police told Guardian Australia that police “did contact Telstra and request incoming call data for the former chief commissioner’s phone”.

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Victorian coroner changes how Indigenous deaths in custody are investigated

Aboriginal legal services say they don’t have enough funding to meet the new commitments

The coroner’s court of Victoria has changed the way it investigates Indigenous deaths in custody to reflect recommendations made in a royal commission almost 30 years ago, but Aboriginal legal services say they don’t have enough funding to meet the court’s new commitments.

The Victorian state coroner, judge John Cain, issued a practice direction on Tuesday outlining new standards for investigating Indigenous deaths in custody. It includes a requirement that the coroner attend the scene of death where practicable, instead of relying on the report of the police officer conducting the investigation.

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Melbourne anti-lockdown protesters arrested and chased by police on horseback

Protesters run through back streets in ‘chaotic scenes’ as further demonstrations expected on Sunday

Police have arrested 16 anti-lockdown protesters and fined 21 others during “chaotic” scenes in Melbourne’s south-east in which demonstrators were chased by police on horseback.

About 50 to 100 demonstrators began protesting at the State Library but moved to Elsternwick Park where they were pursued by police.

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John Edwards inquest: clerk at gun registry scrolled past domestic violence allegations

NSW Firearms Registry officer didn’t read into allegations on police profile during an assessment for gun training permit, court told

A NSW Firearms Registry clerk who told investigators John Edwards’ police profile hadn’t “rung alarm bells” for her has been forced to admit she didn’t properly look at the profile.

An inquest was told on Tuesday the pensioner was granted a gun licence about a year before he murdered his estranged children, Jack and Jennifer Edwards, with a legally owned pistol in July 2018.

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Victoria police arrest 14 people at illegal anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne

About 100 people attended the protests, with 51 fines issued for breaching stay-at-home orders

Victoria police have arrested 14 people at illegal anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne, with 51 fines issued for breaching stay-at-home orders.

About 100 people attended the protests at various locations in the city, with a large police presence outnumbering those taking part in the so-called “freedom walk” at the popular running track the Tan and Fitzroy Gardens.

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Australia’s conspiracy theorists are increasingly energised, but police crackdowns may be counterproductive | Elliott Brennan

QAnon is dangerous but some action taken to stem its influence may further embolden its followers

Saturday, 5 September was supposed to be the day Australian history was irreconcilably changed. It was to be “Freedom Day”, the day when “real” Aussies took back control of the streets, their airways and their collective destiny.

Rather than changing it, the protests amounted to what might constitute a footnote in an awfully specific history of Australia. Disparate groups gathered in separate events around the country. Dozens of protesters were arrested, dozens more were fined with breaching Covid-19 restrictions, one protester jumped into Melbourne’s Albert Park Lake and all of it was livestreamed.

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Melbourne anti-lockdown protests: at least 15 arrested in violent clashes with police

Protesters seen chanting ‘freedom’ and hurling abuse at police and media while not wearing masks

At least 15 people have been arrested at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance and Albert Park after at least 200 protesters defied the city’s stage-four lockdowns to hold an anti-lockdown rally on Saturday.

Police in New South Wales also arrested three people at an unauthorised protest in Sydney’s Hyde Park while another protest was held at Sydney’s Olympic Park. Smaller protests were also held in Townsville, Brisbane and Byron Bay.

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Australia’s state by state coronavirus lockdown rules and restrictions explained

What are the restrictions within Victoria and the border closures with NSW and Queensland? How far can I travel, and how many people can I have over at my house? Untangle Australia’s Covid-19 laws and guidelines with our guide

Australians had been slowly emerging from Covid-19 lockdowns since the federal government announced a three-stage plan in May to ease restrictions across the country, but from 8 July the Melbourne metropolitan area and Mitchell shire immediately to the north returned to a stage three lockdown for six weeks.

After consistently high case numbers despite the lockdown, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, announced further restrictions for the state. From 2 August, metropolitan Melbourne entered a six-week stage four lockdown, while a stage three lockdown took effect across regional Victoria and Mitchell shire from 6 August.

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Coronavirus Australia: Victoria reports 466 new cases and 12 deaths, including second man in his 30s

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says number of mystery Covid-19 cases has risen by 130 as nine new infections announced in NSW

A man in his 30s and six aged care residents are among 12 new Victorian Covid-19 deaths that have taken Australia’s coronavirus death toll to 278.

On Saturday, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, announced a further 466 cases of coronavirus in the state. Andrews said the number of cases attributed to no known source had risen by 130 to 2,584.

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Sydney coronavirus toilet paper stoush: mother and daughter found guilty

Meriam Bebawy took the law into her own hands after another shopper grabbed a packet of toilet paper from her trolley at Woolworths, a magistrate has found

A Sydney magistrate has likened a coronavirus-fuelled stoush over toilet paper to a rugby league bust-up as he found a mother and daughter guilty of affray.

Health worker Meriam Bebawy, 23, and her daycare operator mother, Treiza Bebawy, 61, have been sentenced over an altercation with another woman at a Woolworths store in Chullora on 7 March.

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‘You think that’s racist?’: the generational tension in Melbourne’s high-rise migrant families

There is a schism between older African migrants – who think Australia is ‘the greatest country in the world’ – and those who came here young or grew up here

This is the fourth in a six-part series on life inside Melbourne’s high-rise public housing. Read the third part here.

Nor Shanino would get into big debates with his father, Idris, an Eritrean refugee, about the police and the country.

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Queensland policewoman choked and bitten in attack by New Zealand brother and sister

Court hears officer struggles mentally since the attack: ‘Shame on you both’

A man repeatedly choked then bit a Queensland policewoman as his sister handcuffed the officer after the pair were kicked out of a Brisbane pub.

New Zealanders Hylton Miharo King, 24, and Ariana Thirteen King, 30, pleaded guilty to seriously assaulting the police officer at Mitchelton in May 2019.

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