Category Archives: New South Wales politics

Alleged domestic violence perpetrators to wear ankle bracelets under NSW bail reforms

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Corrective services will electronically monitor whereabouts of people released from custody while charged with serious offences

Alleged perpetrators charged with serious domestic violence offences in New South Wales will wear ankle bracelets and have their movements tracked around the clock if they are granted bail.

The NSW government announced the changes would take effect on Friday, and would involve corrective services electronically monitoring alleged perpetrators against geographic bail conditions using GPS technology.

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NSW police union pushes back at premier’s suggestion pro-Palestine protests divert resources from crime

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Police association boss says vast majority of officers at weekend rally were ‘doing user-pay or cancelled rest day’ shifts

The head of the New South Wales police union has denied any suggestion that patrolling weekly pro-Palestine protests is making it difficult to respond to or investigate crime across the state.

Kevin Morton’s comments came as the premier, Chris Minns, was forced to deny he had lost control of the Labor caucus after several of his MPs expressed alarm at his statement that police should be able to reject a protest permit based on the cost of patrolling it.

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‘People are dying’: rise of nitazenes should be treated as pandemic, injecting centre head says

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Exclusive: Dr Marianne Jauncey says NSW government must make ‘hard decisions’ to combat growing threat of synthetic opioids

The head doctor at Sydney’s medically supervised injecting centre has compared the rise of synthetic opioids to a pandemic and says she is worried the government isn’t willing to make the “hard decisions” necessary to prepare for it.

Dr Marianne Jauncey began raising the alarm about the increasing prevalence of nitazenes earlier this year but was concerned the Minns Labor government had been reluctant to act because it “still feels for many like an emerging news story”.

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‘It’s a deadly gamble’: NSW urged to act on ‘growing threat’ of nitazenes amid push for drug-checking services

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Exclusive: Legalise Cannabis party MP calls on government to recognise that powerful synthetic opioids ‘aren’t just another drug’

The New South Wales government will be asked to formally recognise the powerful synthetic opioids called nitazenes as a “growing threat” as it faces calls to introduce drug-checking services.

The Legalise Cannabis party MP, Jeremy Buckingham, will move a motion in state parliament on Wednesday night to acknowledge that nitazenes are an emerging problem, including for people who don’t typically take opioids.

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NSW to help renters avoid added app fees and make it easier to keep a pet

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Landlords will have to offer convenient ways to avoid extra charges when paying the rent

New South Wales renters will no longer be made to pay extra fees when they pay the rent and will have greater rights to keep a pet in a suite of reforms to be announced on Monday.

The state government plans to introduce legislation to modernise the state’s rental regulation into parliament in October.

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Greens MP to tour Sydney Jewish Museum and donate funds after offensive ‘tentacles’ trope

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Exclusive: Jenny Leong, who apologised after referencing antisemitic cartoon, was subject of human rights commission complaint

New South Wales Greens MP Jenny Leong will visit the Sydney Jewish Museum and has donated $4,000 after a complaint was lodged with the Australian Human Rights Commission over comments she made about Jewish lobby groups last year.

Leong apologised and said she did not intend to reference an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as an octopus after footage emerged of comments she made at a Palestine Justice Movement forum in Sydney in December 2023.

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Mixed bag for Labor and the rise of the Libertarians: the key surprises in the NSW local elections

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ALP faces a variety of results in what premier Chris Minns calls a ‘massive wake-up call for the major parties’, and Liverpool mayor returns amid corruption inquiry

The counting of votes has resumed to determine the makeup of New South Wales’s 128 councils for the next four years.

The main story of the local government elections was the Liberal party’s disastrous failure to lodge the paperwork to nominate more than a third of its candidates.

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The rise of the Libertarians: ‘fringe’ party could win 15 NSW council seats after Liberals’ bungle

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Minor party could be largest group on MidCoast council and state MP John Ruddick says ‘if you put in a development [application] we will approve it’

The Libertarian party could have up to 15 councillors across New South Wales and take control of a major regional council following the Liberal party’s failure to nominate more than 100 candidates for the weekend’s local government elections.

The NSW Liberal leader, Mark Speakman, said on Sunday his party had “performed strongly” where it had fielded candidates – despite 16 council areas either having no Liberal candidates or fewer than they were meant to.

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‘When they go low’: Clover Moore apologises as volunteer caught allegedly pulling down Indigenous rival’s corflutes

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Team Clover volunteer filmed allegedly removing campaign posters of Yvonne Weldon from outside National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in Redfern

The lord mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, has apologised to an Indigenous political opponent after a volunteer was accused of removing corflutes outside the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in Redfern.

Yvonne Weldon posted a video recorded by one of her team members of a man who had allegedly taken down the corflutes to make way for Moore’s banners.

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‘Not on my watch’: how windfarms became a key issue in NSW local elections

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From Port Stephens to Illawarra, council candidates are running against renewable schemes because of ‘lack of consultation’

Part of what’s driving Mark Watson’s pitch for mayor is his opposition to a project he says is the talk of the town and the “biggest issue” in his coastal home’s history.

The former One Nation candidate for the state government is now running as an independent for mayor of Port Stephens. The coastal town just north of Newcastle overlooks the middle of the 1,800-square kilometre offshore windfarm zone off the Hunter, where the Albanese government plans a renewable energy hub to be operating by 2030.

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NSW town Bungendore to ‘heal’ after it finally gets a high school eight years after John Barilaro promised it

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The then deputy premier announced $71m Bungendore project in 2019 but it was found to breach crown land law. Now Labor is proceeding with its own

The regional New South Wales town of Bungendore will finally get a high school after four years of legal headaches after the announcement of the $71m project by the then state deputy premier and member for Monaro, John Barilaro.

The new high school was a 2019 election commitment and due to be built by January 2023 in the middle of Bungendore’s heritage precinct, requiring the demolition of its pool, community centre and council offices. It caused immediate division and outrage among residents.

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NSW nurses and midwives strike: hospital wait times up and surgery delays expected

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Premier says agreeing to 15% pay rise this year would lead other workers to ‘knock on my door’ demanding the same

A New South Wales nurses’ strike has prompted warnings to keep ambulances and emergency departments clear of minor cases as Labor feels the heat from public sector unions.

Nurses and midwives are walking off the job across NSW for 12 hours on Tuesday after demands for a 15% pay rise this year were rebuffed.

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NSW’s cashless gaming trial has just 32 participants as one in two venues drop out

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Gaming minister insists trial providing ‘a really good picture’, despite low takeup

More than $8bn is funnelled into NSW’s 85,000 poker machines each year, casting doubt on the insight to be gained from a cashless gaming trial involving 32 participants.

The tiny number of players involved in the state’s signature gaming pilot was revealed on Friday, along with news that one in every two venues have tapped out since March.

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NSW drug summit to be co-chaired by former state Liberal leader who denounced pill testing

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Exclusive: Health minister says John Brogden and former deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt ‘respected across the aisle’

A former New South Wales Liberal leader who denounced pill testing as a drug reform option has been picked by the Labor government to co-chair its highly anticipated drug summit.

John Brogden AM will lead the summit, which kicks off in regional NSW in November, alongside the former deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt.

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Rob Stokes declines role on committee to run NSW Liberals after being named by federal executive

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Former NSW minister Stokes had not been told about committee, its composition or terms of reference ahead of the public announcement, source says

The federal Liberal executive did not tell former New South Wales planning minister Rob Stokes that he would be named as part of a three-person committee it wanted to run the state division for almost a year.

The senior party figure refused the position after the federal team demanded the state executive appoint a temporary committee of three to run the troubled division which failed to nominate candidates for some NSW councils.

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NSW minister admits child protection system will continue using motels hours after suggesting ban

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Kate Washington tells hearing ‘accredited providers’ will continue with hotel and motel placements for children removed from families

The minister in charge of New South Wales’ troubled child protection system has admitted that vulnerable children will continue to be housed in hotels and motels – just hours after suggesting such emergency accommodation would be banned.

The state’s families minister, Kate Washington, told a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday that “accredited providers” would continue to operate hotel and motel placements for children who had been removed from their families due to abuse or neglect.

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NSW inquiry into death of Indigenous man shot while fleeing custody calls for urgent review of gun laws

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Mother of Dwayne Johnstone urges government ministers to ‘take note’ of coroner’s recommendation ‘so no one else has to go through it’

The death of an unarmed Indigenous man who was shot while fleeing custody has prompted a coroner to recommend an urgent review of laws governing the use of firearms by correctional officers.

Dwayne Johnstone, a 43-year-old Wiradjuri man, was shot dead outside Lismore Base hospital as he ran in leg shackles and handcuffs from a prison van after receiving medical treatment on 15 March 2019.

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NSW Liberal council election debacle descends into accusations of factional warfare

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Broadcaster Ray Hadley challenges ‘cowardly’ conservatives to ‘have a bit of courage for the sake of NSW politics’

The New South Wales Liberals’ failure to nominate in some local council elections has spilled over into accusations of factional warfare, with moderates warning a review should not be used as a pretext to dump the president, Don Harwin, or usher in federal intervention.

Brian Loughnane, the former federal Liberal director and reviewer of the 2022 election defeat, has been called in to examine the nomination failure, for which state director Richard Shields was sacked.

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Former NSW Coalition government was warned recycled soil products posed ‘unacceptable risks’

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Exclusive: Environment watchdog advised in 2021 the material ‘should not be used broadly’, before backing away from proposals to tighten regulations

The New South Wales environment watchdog warned the former Coalition state government that a widely used recycled landscaping product posed “potential unacceptable risks to the environment and the community”.

Guardian Australia revealed in January that the Environment Protection Authority had known for more than a decade that producers of soil fill made from construction and demolition waste – known as recovered fines – were failing to comply with rules to limit the spread of contaminants.

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NSW Liberals accuse electoral commission of breaking rules after council nomination debacle

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Party threatens legal action against NSW electoral commission after requests for deadline extension rejected

The New South Wales Liberal party has accused the state’s electoral commission of breaching regulations and says it will be left with “no other option” than to take legal action if it isn’t given more time to nominate all its council candidates.

But the acting electoral commissioner, Matthew Phillips, on Sunday rejected the party’s second request for an extension. He said he did not consider it a “realistic possibility” that Liberal HQ could have been unaware of the nomination deadline, and added it would “not be appropriate” to change the election process.

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