Category Archives: Australian police and policing

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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Victoria to extend state of emergency for four more weeks after spike in Covid-19 cases

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Queensland declares southern state a ‘hotspot’ while South Australia reconsiders decision to reopen its border

The Victorian government has announced it will extend its state of emergency for at least four more weeks and ramp up its police enforcement of lockdown rules after a spike in Covid-19 cases.

The surge has also prompted neighbouring South Australia to reconsider its decision to reopen its border, while Queensland has declared all of greater Melbourne a Covid-19 hotspot.

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Australia’s Covid-19 restrictions and coronavirus lockdown rules explained: how far can I travel, and can I have people over?

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How far can you drive and what are the travel restrictions in NSW, Queensland and Victoria? How many people can you have over at your house in Tasmania, ACT, SA, WA or NT? Untangle Australia’s Covid-19 laws and guidelines with our guide

Australians have been slowly emerging from Covid-19 lockdowns since the federal government announced a three-stage plan in May to ease restrictions across the country.

It is up to each state and territory to decide when and how far they will relax restrictions.

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William Callaghan, autistic teenager missing for two nights in Victoria, found alive

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14-year-old, who has non-verbal autism, found near summit of Mount Disappointment on third day of searching

A teenager with non-verbal autism who was missing in the Victorian bush for two freezing nights has been found alive.

Related: William Callaghan: 300 people search Mount Disappointment for boy missing on coldest night of year

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Essential poll: most Australians believe there is institutional racism in the US but not Australia

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Almost 80% of those surveyed agree US authorities have been unwilling to deal with racism and that is why incidents continue to occur

A significant majority of Australians in the latest Guardian Essential poll sample believe Americans are correct to demand better treatment for African Americans in their society – but only 30% believe there is institutional racism in Australian police forces.

The latest survey of 1,073 respondents shows the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police – an incident sparking fury that spilled over into mass protests in a number of US cities, including the capital Washington – resonated strongly in Australia.

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‘Deaths in our backyard’: 432 Indigenous Australians have died in custody since 1991

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Aboriginal people whose family members have died in custody express solidarity with people on the streets of US cities protesting against the death of George Floyd

Australia’s track record on deaths in custody is again under scrutiny, as Aboriginal people whose family members died in similar circumstances to George Floyd express solidarity with protestors on the streets of major US cities following the death of the unarmed black man.

The family of 26-year-old David Dungay, a Dunghutti man who said “I can’t breathe” 12 times before he died while being restrained by five prison guards, said they have been traumatised anew by the footage of Floyd’s death.

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Night at the museum: Sydney man charged after allegedly breaking into dinosaur exhibit

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CCTV footage shows man strolling through exhibits at closed Australian Museum and posing for selfies with head inside mouth of T-Rex skull

A Sydney man will face court on Monday after allegedly breaking into Australia’s oldest museum and snapping selfies with the dinosaur exhibit.

The man broke into the heritage-listed Australian Museum in Sydney’s CBD just after 1am on Sunday 10 May, and was captured on CCTV cameras wandering around the exhibits for around 40 minutes, according to New South Wales police.

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Dean Laidley arrest: Victoria police to investigate leaked photos of ex-AFL coach

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Lawyers and civil liberties groups condemn police after images from inside station appear on newspaper front pages

Victoria police has launched an internal investigation into how photos of former AFL player and coach Dean Laidley inside a police station following his arrest appeared on the front page of two major newspapers on Monday.

Lawyers and civil liberties groups have slammed the state’s police force after photos of the 53-year-old former premiership-winning player wearing a blonde wig and dress were leaked over the weekend.

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Australia’s coronavirus social distancing rules explained: state by state guidelines

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Scott Morrison has tightened physical distancing restrictions, but how they are applied will be determined by each state. Find out what’s illegal, and what happens if you break the law

Since the pandemic was declared all Australian states have gone into various levels of lockdown.

Now that the country is cautiously optimistic that the curve has been flattened, the big question is how and when we will come out of isolation?

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No evidence doctored documents Angus Taylor used to attack council existed on website, NSW police say

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NSW police also say they asked to interview energy minister, but all questions were answered by his lawyers

New South Wales police says it found no evidence that the document Angus Taylor’s office used to attack City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore ever existed on the council’s website, casting renewed doubt on the minister’s explanation.

Taylor has repeatedly insisted that the false document he used to wrongly attack Moore for her travel-related emissions was downloaded from the council’s own website.

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Eastern Freeway crash: police arrest Porsche driver who fled scene after four Victoria police officers killed

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Porsche driver allegedly posted images to social media and fled after truck ploughed into four officers who had intercepted him

Police have arrested the Porsche driver who allegedly fled the scene of the accident that killed four Victoria police officers in Melbourne.

The crash happened on the Eastern Freeway at Kew about 5.40pm on Wednesday and is the biggest loss of police officer life in Victoria’s history.

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Victoria police respond to family violence risk during ‘very stressful time’ of coronavirus

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A new taskforce called Operation Ribbon will keep police in contact with high-risk perpetrators and their victims

Of the approximately 7,000 calls relating to family violence made to Victoria police in the past month, 14% have related to Covid-19, the state’s deputy police commissioner, Shane Patton, said on Tuesday.

When police attended those incidents they were told by the alleged victim or alleged perpetrator that having to stay at home together had exacerbated animosity. Patton said that while there had not been an increase recorded in the number of assaults, police were preparing for such an outcome, and had already experienced an increase in reporting by third parties.

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Australia coronavirus update live: Victoria extends state of emergency as travellers fly in from cruise nightmare – latest news

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Premier Daniel Andrews says state of emergency will be extended for a further four weeks as Australians trapped on Antarctic cruise ship arrive in Melbourne. Follow updates live

McGowan says he took his kids camping ... in his backyard ... over Easter because obviously other locations were unavailable.

And that’s the end of the press conference.

“We’ve successfully flattened the curve, but now we’ve got to figure out how to keep it there but also find out a long-term solution to the problem we face,” McGowan says.

He says he is working on getting commercial tenancy legislation in parliament this week. He’s not sure whether residential tenancy legislation will be ready this week but it will be brought in when it is.

The former will be brought into WA parliament for debate on Wednesday.

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Perth endures hottest April day ever, as temperature reaches 39.5C

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Beaches remain open in Western Australia as police praise the public for respecting coronavirus physical distancing rules

Police have praised West Australian beachgoers for respecting physical distancing rules as Perth sweltered through its hottest April day on record.

Perth’s temperature reached 39.5C on Saturday, eclipsing the previous April record set in 1910.

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