Category Archives: New South Wales politics

Bad men problem: Gareth Ward and Mark Latham leave NSW parliament in unchartered territory

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The two MPs’ cases are vastly different but the issue is the same: parliament’s rules to enforce standards of behaviour are hopelessly outdated and ineffectual

The New South Wales parliament has a problem with men behaving badly. But more to the point, it seems to have an inability to deal with it.

On Tuesday, the parliament will try to deal with two very different cases that share a common consequence: damage to its reputation as an institution.

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Decision delayed for pro-Palestine protest on Sydney Harbour Bridge as police warn of possible crowd crush

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Group’s lawyers say demonstration ‘cannot be stopped’ as Christian-led group protesting antisemitism plans rally for same day

Pro-Palestine protesters will have to wait until Saturday to find out if they can legally march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge this weekend, but organisers are vowing to go ahead regardless of the court decision.

However, the court heard the protest organisers are willing to postpone the march if police agree to work with them.

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Pro-Palestine protest group says ‘we will see them in court’ after police block Sydney Harbour Bridge march

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Sydney-based group say weekend demonstration ‘must go ahead’ despite police knocking back application

Organisers of a pro-Palestine protest have vowed to fight the New South Wales police in court after police decided to not facilitate a march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge this weekend.

On Tuesday afternoon, the deputy police commissioner, Peter McKenna, said police had rejected an application from the organisers proposing a route across the bridge to the US consulate, citing safety risks as the reason. But he said police were open to negotiating alternative routes.

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Sydney mayor Clover Moore says pro-Palestine march across Harbour Bridge would be ‘powerful symbol’

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NSW Labor MP Anthony D’Adam rejects premier’s claim march would cause chaos and says it should take place in ‘two to three weeks’

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The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, has said a pro-Palestine protest involving a march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge would be a “powerful symbol” and should go ahead at some point “if the community sentiment is significant enough”.

A New South Wales Labor MP has also rejected the premier’s claim a march across the bridge would cause chaos and urged police to facilitate the demonstration “within two to three weeks”.

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Union says insurers ‘bleeding the system dry’ in backlash to NSW bid to limit workers compensation claims

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One insurer spent $85,000 of public money to fight $5,000 knee surgery claim, says Unions NSW

The Minns Labor government is facing strong pushback against workers compensation changes designed to curb claims for psychological injury, with educators and the peak union group criticising the bill’s failure to address underlying issues.

The government wants to limit the ability of New South Wales’s 4.5 million workers to claim compensation by raising the psychological injury threshold required for compensation and making it harder to receive lifetime payments.

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Mark Latham’s alleged behaviour in parliament is a sign of a toxic political culture for women – and that’s a much bigger problem to fix

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Chris Minns and his opposition counterpart are the only ones who can drive broader change and improve workplace culture

Over the past few years, political leaders around Australia have been called out for tolerating poor behaviour – mostly by male politicians and staff directed at their female colleagues.

This time, the focus is on New South Wales MP Mark Latham.

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Lawyers investigate whether Hannah Thomas could sue police over alleged excessive use of force at Sydney protest

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Critical incident investigation declared into arrest of former Greens candidate who says she could lose sight in right eye

Lawyers are investigating whether protesters could sue New South Wales police over alleged excessive use of force during a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney, after which the former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas said she could lose sight in her right eye.

Thomas, 35, who ran against the prime minister at the federal election, was arrested at the Belmore protest which was attended by about 60 people on Friday. She was subsequently taken to hospital and underwent surgery.

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NSW political staffers could be arrested after failing to appear at Dural caravan inquiry

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Committee seeking warrants for staff from premier and police minister’s offices, but they insist they had ‘reasonable excuse or just cause’ not to attend

A parliamentary committee is seeking warrants for the arrest of five New South Wales government staffers who failed to appear and give evidence to an inquiry examining the Sydney caravan “fake terrorism plot”.

The staffers – three from the office of the premier, Chris Minns, and two who work for the police minister, Yasmin Catley – were summoned to appear before the inquiry on Friday.

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Former NSW MP Daryl Maguire found guilty of misleading corruption inquiry

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Ex-partner of former premier Gladys Berejiklian misled Icac probe over $48m property development, magistrate finds

Ex-Liberal MP Daryl Maguire has been found guilty of misleading a corruption probe about benefits expected from a $48m property development sale.

The former member for Wagga Wagga, whose clandestine relationship with ex-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian led to her political downfall, appeared at Sydney’s Downing Centre Court for the verdict on Friday.

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Chris Minns to reveal NSW plans to bolster housing construction

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‘You can’t build new homes without roads, parks and schools to match, and the community shouldn’t have to wait for them,’ premier says

Developers in New South Wales will be able to choose between paying a levy of $12,000 per lot, or building infrastructure such as roads and parks themselves as an “in kind payment” in a further push to speed up the construction of new housing in the state.

The changes will be revealed on Thursday by the premier, Chris Minns, before next week’s state budget.

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NSW government failing to measure or reduce gambling harm, damning audit finds

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Gambling losses and calls to helplines both up but Minns government has no benchmarks or measures to assess its harm minimisation strategy, report says

The New South Wales government has not set targets to reduce the harm caused by about 90,000 poker machines in the state and does not know if it is protecting people, according to a damning audit.

The state’s auditor general has also said the NSW government is doing “relatively little” to assess whether pubs and clubs are identifying and preventing gambling harm at their venues.

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Setback for Minns government as controversial workers’ compensation bill sent to inquiry

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Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, who opposed the inquiry, said NSW’s compensation scheme was running a $5m deficit every day

A controversial bill to curtail workers’ compensation claims for psychological injuries incurred by New South Wales workers will be sent to a parliamentary inquiry, after crossbenchers and the Coalition banded together to force the inquiry.

The independent Mark Latham moved for a relatively swift inquiry, with the date of reporting to be set by the chair of the inquiry, once the scope of evidence is known.

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NSW gamblers losing $24m to poker machines every day, analysis shows

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Wesley Mission says the ‘devastating impact deepens every day’ with one western Sydney area averaging $2m a day lost to pokies

The New South Wales government has failed to prevent serious gambling harm with $2.7bn lost to poker machines in the first 90 days of this year, according to a charity group pushing for tougher regulation.

Analysis of state government data by Wesley Mission has found the amount of money lost to poker machines during the first quarter of 2025 increased by 5.7% when compared with the same period in 2024.

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Chris Minns warns of $2bn budget hole if bill curtailing psychological injury claims fails

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Opposition opposes premier’s bill to raise impairment threshold to 30% as Labor forced to woo crossbenchers for support

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has warned a failure to pass his controversial workers compensation legislation would blow a $2bn hole in the state budget as Labor seeks to woo a coalition of conservative crossbenchers to pass the bill.

In parliament, the premier said if the changes to curtail psychological injury claims did not go through, an additional $2bn would be required from NSW taxpayers to fund the public service portion of the scheme.

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Bradfield and Goldstein face nervous weekend wait for election result but Tim Wilson ‘very relaxed’

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AEC considers sending staff to airport ‘at late hours’ to collect final postal and overseas votes before midnight deadline

Liberal Tim Wilson has said he is “very relaxed” despite his lead over Zoe Daniel in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein slipping to 206 votes with late postal and overseas ballots from as far away as Nairobi still to be counted.

Candidates in the Sydney seat of Bradfield also face an anxious weekend, with no more counting to take place until Monday. On Friday afternoon, Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian led the independent candidate, Nicolette Boele, by just 43 votes.

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NSW forestry agency should be shut down for repeatedly breaking law, critics argue

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Forestry Corporation says suggestion that it can be compared to a criminal bikie gang is ‘ridiculous’

A former magistrate and one of Australia’s most experienced scientists have launched an extraordinary attack on the New South Wales government’s logging agency, describing it as effectively a “criminal organisation” that should be shut down after a string of court convictions.

Prof David Heilpern, a NSW magistrate between 1998 and 2020 and now the dean of law at Southern Cross University, said the state’s Forestry Corporation should be “disbanded” as it was was no longer fit for purpose.

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Endangered greater gliders recorded in proposed great koala national park in NSW as logging continues

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Conservation groups call for immediate action to protect wildlife as two-year wait for Labor’s promised creation of park continues

Government surveys have found tens of thousands of endangered greater gliders could be living within the proposed area for a great koala national park in New South Wales, prompting new calls for the area to be quickly protected from logging.

Data from aerial drone and ground-based surveys at 169 sites within the proposed park were used to model the likely presence of Australia’s largest gliding possum across the entire 176,000 hectares the NSW government is considering for protection.

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NSW’s sole women’s-only clinic dedicated to trauma ends ‘gamechanging’ focus

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Specialists at Ramsay Clinic Thirroul have reportedly resigned against backdrop of larger shortage of psychiatrists across state

In 2022 Ramsay Healthcare opened Australia’s first women’s-only hospital “dedicated” to trauma-related mental health issues in Wollongong.

Ramsay Clinic Thirroul was supposed to be a “gamechanger” designed specifically to provide women – often survivors of family and sexual violence – the safe environment needed to be able to escape the flight or fight stress response and begin to recover through a program of therapies.

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‘A time of great anxiety’: renters fear surge in no-grounds evictions before NSW ban comes into force

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Housing organisations welcome the new laws but are bracing for a spike in evictions before the change takes effect

Renters and advocates are worried there could be a surge in no-grounds evictions in New South Wales over the coming month as landlords act ahead of the law changing in mid-May.

The Tenants’ Union of NSW says it’s a “real risk” and the Minns government has dropped the ball by not putting interim measures in place to protect renters.

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NSW government considering buying back Northern Beaches hospital amid Healthscope debt crisis

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Recent incidents, including the death of a newborn, have heightened concerns about the level of care at the hospital

The New South Wales government is considering buying back the public hospital component of Northern Beaches hospital, as its private owner, Healthscope, faces a looming financial crisis.

The government said on Thursday it had been notified of a proposal by Healthscope seeking to have the hospital returned to the NSW public system.

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