More than 90% of marine animals caught in NSW shark nets over summer were non-target species

Exclusive: New documents reveal NSW government division over controversial program as data reveals death toll

More than 90% of marine animals caught in shark nets off New South Wales beaches over the summer were non-target species, with new documents revealing division within the government over the controversial program.

More than half of the 208 non-target species – such as turtles, dolphins and smaller sharks – that were caught in the nets over the past eight months were killed, data obtained by conservationists show.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Drop in GST revenue will cost NSW ‘more than Covid’, treasurer says

Daniel Mookhey says ‘absurd’ carve-up of GST allocations means the state will ‘almost certainly’ lose its coveted AAA credit rating

New South Wales will “almost certainly” lose its remaining top-notch debt rating after an “absurd” carve-up of GST revenue stripped more from state revenue than Covid-19, the state’s treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, said.

The assessment comes about a month after the Commonwealth Grants Commission revealed how it would allocate GST money. NSW complained it would lose $1.65bn even as its population swelled and other states, such as Victoria, got extra funds.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW Liberal party expels state MP Taylor Martin over ‘undignified’ breakup texts

Upper house member had been suspended from the party room after allegedly sending messages with ‘heated words’ to former girlfriend

The New South Wales Liberal party has expelled state MP Taylor Martin as a result of an investigation into text messages he sent to a woman with whom he was in a relationship.

Martin, who has been a member of the NSW upper house since 2017, has sat outside the Liberal party room since July last year after the party launched the investigation.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Marles says Labor ‘utterly committed’ to Brereton response but can’t say when work will be completed

Follow today’s news live

Unemployment ‘might take up a little bit’ when new numbers released later this week

Q: Given the economic conditions we’re seeing, what should households with mortgages expect?

[Inflation] won’t necessarily continue to come off in a perfectly straight line, but [it] is a fraction of what it was a couple of years ago when we came to office. That’s a good thing.

So we’ve got a whole bunch of things going for us in Australia, but enough to concern us as well about the global conditions about the way that people are still under considerable cost of living pressure.

The way that I would describe it to your listeners is we’ve got inflation lingering in parts of the world, we’ve got growth slowing in China and elsewhere, we’ve got tensions rising in the Middle East and the war in Europe. We’ve got supply chains which are straining and we’ve got a global economy which is fragmenting and transforming and so all of these factors are really important to us as we finalise the government’s third budget.

These are going to be these global conditions are going to be a really big influence on our budget, so the trip to DC which will be a pretty quick and make the most of it but it’s a good opportunity to take the temperature of the global economy.

Continue reading...

Bridget Archer leads criticism after Peter Dutton compares pro-Palestine protest to Port Arthur massacre

Tasmanian Liberal MP labels comments ‘wholly inappropriate’ after PM says he was ‘taken aback’ by opposition leader’s speech

Peter Dutton has drawn widespread criticism, including from one of his own MPs, for comparing the 1996 mass murder of 35 people at Port Arthur to a pro-Palestine protest at the Sydney Opera House.

The Tasmanian Liberal backbencher Bridget Archer labelled Dutton’s comments “incredibly disrespectful” and “wholly inappropriate”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Rozelle interchange: hundreds of residents vent frustration over traffic chaos as inquiry begins

Survey reveals locals’ disappointment with NSW transport agency’s response after bungled opening of $3.9bn junction

Hundreds of Sydney residents have vented their frustration about the traffic chaos caused by the Rozelle interchange in a survey released on the first day of an inquiry into the $3.9bn junction.

The majority of the 1,034 people who participated in the survey said the interchange had negatively affected them since it opened last November, with many voicing their disappointment at the New South Wales transport agency’s response.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW to review child protection screening algorithm over concerns about racial bias

Families minister says system is ‘not delivering the outcomes we want to see’ as almost 50% of children in care in NSW are Aboriginal

The New South Wales government will review a child protection tool that disproportionately affects Aboriginal children – and that has not been updated in the state for more than a decade.

The controversial system known as “structured decision making” (SDM) has been in use since 2010 to screen for at-risk children.

Continue reading...

Peter Dutton in standoff with state Liberal leaders over federal Coalition’s nuclear plan

The federal opposition leader’s calls to include nuclear power in Australia’s energy mix has so far failed to win support from his state colleagues

The federal Coalition faces a battle with the states on its proposal for nuclear power stations at the sites of decommissioned coal power plants, with state premiers and opposition leaders alike largely against Peter Dutton’s proposal.

Labor governments and Coalition oppositions in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are either outright opposed to the plan or have failed to endorse it.

Continue reading...

NSW outlaws gay conversion practices and makes it harder for young people to get bail

LGBTQ groups welcome legislation passed after marathon overnight sitting, but critics line up to warn bail laws will put more children in jail

Gay conversion practices have been outlawed in New South Wales and it will be harder for teenage offenders to get bail after two laws passed the state’s parliament overnight.

The laws will, separately, ban conversion practices such as religious “straight camps” that attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation and introduce an extra test for some young people seeking bail.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW could be forced to pay up to $4.3bn compensation if Newcastle becomes container port, modelling shows

Modelling conducted for Treasury finds state’s liability to competing terminals could be $600m in 2024 and $4.3bn by 2063

The New South Wales government could be forced to pay up to $4.3bn in compensation if Newcastle becomes a container port, after it was privatised a decade ago along with two other major ports.

The government will on Thursday reveal the contracts used in the sales of Port Botany and Port Kembla in 2013 and the sale of the Port of Newcastle the following year, as well as modelling commissioned on the northern port’s plan to develop container abilities.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Data missing on clearing of endangered ecosystems for western Sydney housing scheme

NSW environment department spokesperson says offset program for the area has continued despite failure to file reports for three years

The New South Wales environment department stopped monitoring and reporting on a $530m conservation program meant to compensate for swathes of land-clearing at the same time as its management of biodiversity offset schemes was under investigation, Guardian Australia can reveal.

Conservationists and the NSW Greens say the government must investigate the “startling failure” by the department to report on progress towards meeting the conservation offset requirements for new suburb developments in western Sydney.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Influential NSW independent speaks out against laws that make it harder for young people to get bail

Exclusive: Barwon MP and former police staffer Roy Butler says it’s wrong to assume offenders view longer sentences as a deterrent

An influential independent New South Wales MP has spoken out against new laws from the Minns government that would make it harder for young people to get bail.

The Barwon MP, Roy Butler, a former police administrator, said it was wrong to assume that young offenders would always view extended sentences as a punishment and a deterrent to antisocial behaviour.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Wolli Creek national park gains additional 4.7 hectares of land to complete ‘green ribbon’

Minns government fulfils $13m election commitment following long-running community campaign to protect the area

Almost five hectares of parklands has been added to the Wolli Creek regional national park – “a patch of green ribbon” which runs through dense suburbs in Sydney’s south – in the past year.

The Minns government added the additional 4.7 hectares after a $13m election commitment to complete the park, which borders Wolli Creek and was first promised by the Carr government in 1998.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW premier backs top prosecutor who says criticism of sexual assault cases is ‘preposterous’

Sally Dowling announced audit of all sexual assault cases after judicial concern over ‘secret policies’

The New South Wales premier has backed the state’s top prosecutor after she said it was “preposterous” to suggest sexual assault cases were being run that were doomed to fail.

The director of public prosecutions (DPP), Sally Dowling SC, on Wednesday revealed all sexual assault matters currently committed for trial would be audited by senior prosecutors.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Former NSW government accused of ‘pork barrelling at public’s expense’ after scathing audit

The $5bn post-pandemic spending program ‘not informed by robust research or analysis’ auditor general finds

Labor has accused the former New South Wales Coalition government of “pork barrelling at the public’s expense” after the auditor general found the design of a $5bn scheme to funnel money into areas worst hit by Covid lockdowns “lacked integrity”.

In a report released on Wednesday, Margaret Crawford found that more than $1bn was allocated to “low or moderate merit” infrastructure projects in western Sydney as part of the massive post-pandemic spending program WestInvest.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Daryl Maguire had ‘emotional hold’ over Gladys Berejiklian, Icac lawyer tells court

The disgraced MP for Wagga was a ‘special kind of serial pest’ but ex-premier’s shared vision of the future with him clouded her judgment, court hears

Gladys Berejiklian’s former boyfriend, the disgraced ex-MP Daryl Maguire, was a “special kind of serial pest” who had an “emotional hold” over the former state premier, a lawyer representing the New South Wales corruption watchdog has told a court.

Defending the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s findings of corrupt conduct on the part of Berejiklian, Stephen Free SC told the court of appeal Berejiklian’s “vision for her future” with her Liberal colleague had impacted her judgment.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Nearly 100,000 NSW homes not being used for long-term housing, figures show

Housing review finds 33,000 homes, including Stayz and Airbnb listings, are registered as non-hosted short-term rentals

Almost 100,000 apartments and houses across New South Wales are not being used for long-term housing, according to state government modelling.

The state government estimates 15,000 homes are vacant year-round, 45,000 are used as holiday homes and more than 33,000 are registered as non-hosted short-term properties, according to the data released as part of the Minns government’s review of short-term rentals including Stayz and Airbnb.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW opposition calls for central register of sites under investigation amid asbestos crisis

Environment spokesperson Kellie Sloane says park users should not hear about potential contamination through the media

The New South Wales opposition has called for a central register of all sites being investigated for possible asbestos contamination by the state’s environmental watchdog, including parks and schools.

Councils across Sydney have been assessing their parks and landscaping providers after the City of Sydney announced 32 sites were under investigation for possible contamination in addition to three where asbestos was found in mulch earlier in the week.

Continue reading...

NSW mega-councils to foot the bill if they want to reverse forced mergers

Labor to create legal pathway for council demergers after forced amalgamations by former Coalition government

New South Wales mega-councils will be forced to pay for their own demergers, in a move likely to anger local governments that have long been advocating for the state government to stump up cash and allow forced amalgamations to be reversed.

The Minns government will on Tuesday introduce legislation to parliament to create a legal pathway to demergers for councils, including Sydney’s Inner West, that wish to split – but it has made it clear it won’t be footing the bill.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Concerns a Sydney apartment complex is at risk of collapse downplayed by NSW watchdog and planning minister

Building commissioner says he is confident defects at 900-apartment complex in Macquarie Park ‘will be rectified’, while minister says faults don’t pose a risk

The New South Wales building watchdog and the state’s planning minister have downplayed concerns over 900 apartments in Sydney’s north that were at risk of collapse after defects were discovered in the basements of the buildings.

The building commissioner, David Chandler, on Thursday said he was distressed that people who lived in the Macquarie Park building had been stressed by the news and he moved to assure the public there was “no risk to this building”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...