Posted | Updated
The New South Wales regional city of Orange, the birthplace of Banjo Paterson, is holding a festival to mark his 150th birthday. The event has included the unveiling of a refurbished cottage, the last remaining building from the property where the poet was born.
Posted | Updated
Fiji's Attorney-General is keeping up the pressure on the Australian government to officially lift travel restrictions. During a visit to Fiji last week, Australia's Foreign Minister said there had been a significant easing of the restrictions on government officials but Fiji wants the Federal Government to lift the ban completely, calling it "economic sabotage".
Topics: travel-and-tourism, world-politics, fiji
Posted | Updated
A growing number of Victorian primary school principals are ignoring the legislative requirement that they provide students with an hour of religious instruction a week. The Victorian Education Minister says the law was passed in 2006 with bipartisan support but he is confident principals will make the best decision for their school.
Topics: religion-and-beliefs, education, vic
Posted | Updated
In Victoria, 20 firefighters have been treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after fighting a blaze which is still burning inside the open-cut mine at the Hazelwood Power Station, east of Melbourne. The three kilometre fire has been burning inside the coal mine for eight days. It's causing problems for the people of Morwell, who were told to stay inside their homes on Saturday due to dangerously high carbon monoxide levels in smoke blanketing the town.
Topics: bushfire, morwell-3840
Posted | Updated
The US Secretary of State John Kerry has delivered a keynote address on climate change in Indonesia, urging countries to pull together on a threat that he says is very real. John Kerry has also reached out to young people, telling them that there is time to make a difference.
Topics: climate-change, united-states
Posted | Updated
The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse is holding its first public inquiry outside Sydney today, investigating a scandal in the regional Queensland city of Toowoomba. The case involves the abuse of 13 primary school girls by their teacher, Gerard Byrnes, who pleaded guilty and is now serving a 10-year jail sentence. The commission is investigating how the school staff, including the principal, and Catholic Church officials in Queensland dealt with the allegations when they first emerged in 2007.
Topics: child-abuse, sexual-offences, brisbane-4000
Posted | Updated
The Royal Commission is also looking at the mandatory reporting regime that was in place at the time of the abuse at the Toowoomba School. The rules were tightened after the school principal was found not guilty of failing to refer the allegation to police. Monique Scattini represented the families of five victims who took the civil action. She joins The World Today to explain how the mandatory reporting rules have changed since then.
Topics: child-abuse, sexual-offences, brisbane-4000
Posted
Industry Super Australia has received legal advice that the Federal Government's plans to rollback Labor's superannuation reforms could be ruled invalid and susceptible to a court challenge. The Melbourne law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler says financial advisors who rely on the Government's changes standing up could be found to have acted unlawfully. But the Assistant Treasurer Senator Arthur Sinodinos says the Government is standing firm.
Topics: superannuation, australia
Posted
The Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed there was a bout of unrest at the Manus Island detention centre overnight. He says eight asylum seekers have been arrested after 35 escaped. Advocates and locals say the incident was fuelled by frustration over the length of time it's taking to process the detainees' claims. But the Prime Minister says processing is happening, and the deal to resettle Manus island detainees in Papua New Guinea stands.
Topics: refugees, government-and-politics, papua-new-guinea, australia
Posted
As the Prime Minister promises to take a drought package to Cabinet, economics Professor John Freebairn from the University of Melbourne warns that the Government risks propping up unproductive parts of the economy unless it strictly limits its assistance.
Posted
While the Prime Minister brought some rain to the eastern states, some farmers from Western Australia's Wheatbelt say they've had very little rain for five years and are feeling overlooked by the drought discussions. The WA Farmers Federation says 150 large farms are experiencing severe drought and financial difficulties.
Posted | Updated
The Prime Minister is back in Canberra after his tour of drought affected communities in New South Wales and Queensland. Tony Abbott promised farmers that he would look at government assistance in the form of more income and loan support to help them through the drought. In a deal likely to boost export opportunities for some farmers, the Government has moved a step closer to a free trade deal with South Korea.
Posted
Protestors in Ukraine have vacated Kiev's City Hall and other government buildings as part of an amnesty deal agreed with authorities. Under the deal, all charges are to be dropped against those arrested in the course of close to three months of civil unrest. The protestors say they will move back in if their conditions are not met.
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, government-and-politics, foreign-affairs, ukraine
Posted | Updated
Manus Island MP Ronnie Knight says no asylum seekers have escaped from the detention centre after an incident there last night. He's currently in Port Moresby because parliament is sitting, but he has been speaking to other officials on the Island. He warns that tensions will continue until the PNG govnernment and the Australian Government organise a visa arrangement.
Topics: refugees, government-and-politics, papua-new-guinea, australia
Posted | Updated
The disturbance on Manus Island has prompted questions as to whether asylum seekers from the centre will still be resettled in Papua New Guinea.
Topics: refugees, government-and-politics, papua-new-guinea, australia
Posted | Updated
Industry Super Australia has received legal advice that the Federal Government's plans to roll back Labor's superanuation reforms could be ruled invalid and susceptible to a court challenge. The Melbourne law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler says financial advisors who rely on the government's changes standing up could be found to have acted unlawfully.
Topics: superannuation, business-economics-and-finance, government-and-politics, australia
Posted | Updated
Under a new free trade deal with Australia's third largest export market, Korea has agreed to slash tariffs on Australian exports by up to 555 per cent. The Trade Minister Andrew Robb says it's a win for Australian agriculture and will deliver hundreds of millions of dollars in export earnings.
Topics: agreements-and-treaties, trade, australia, korea-republic-of
Posted | Updated
The NSA is today refusing to comment on more revelations about its spying activities, this time involving Australia's intelligence agency. According to documents taken by former security analyst Edward Snowden, Australia passed on information it gathered in early 2013 when the US was in a trade dispute with the Indonesian government.
Topics: security-intelligence, australia, indonesia, united-states
Posted | Updated
In 2010, a veteran teacher from a primary school in Toowoomba faced court for child sex offences committed against 13 girls between 2007 and 2008. Gerard Byrnes is still serving his 10 year prison sentence. But today the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will turn its attention to how the primary school staff and Catholic Church officials dealt with the allegations when they emerged in 2007.
Topics: royal-commissions, community-and-society, child-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, sexual-offences, toowoomba-4350, australia, qld, toowoomba-city-4350
Posted | Updated
The images were heaven sent - the skies opening on a Prime Minister touring drought striken parts of New South Wales and Queensland - but farmers are adamant the isolated falls won't break the dry spell. When Tony Abbott arrives in Canberra, he'll go straight into a Cabinet meeting to nut out a drought assistance package.
Topics: drought, government-and-politics, australia
Posted | Updated
The head of the Public Health Association Michael Moore wants the healthy food labelling website up online immediately after the chief of staff to the Assistant Health Minister, Alistair Furnival, resigned amidst claims of conflict of interest over his links to major food companies. The Tasmanian Health Minister says she's asked the Commonwealth for an explanation of why it acted alone to take the website down.
Topics: government-and-politics, internet-culture, australia
Posted | Updated
The charity Save the Children says it will be caring for the unaccompanied children who have been sent to Nauru on the weekend. The children have been moved from Christmas Island and a child asylum seeker advocate is warning the teenagers risk serious mental health problems in the offshore detention centre.
Topics: refugees, charities-and-community-organisations, children, charities, nauru, australia
Posted
For 40 years New Zealanders have been waking up to the sound of bird song - not necessarily from their backyards, but on national radio. When correspondent Dominique Schwartz moved to Auckland three years ago, she found the different bird calls heralding the morning news bulletins quaint and endearing. But she's since discovered they're much more than just a gentle way to greet the day.
Topics: birds, human-interest, new-zealand
Posted
It's often said that a good marriage is based on trust, but in India sometimes that isn't quite enough. The private detective industry is booming in India, as more and more couples and families hire spies to look into a prospective spouse's past.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, india
Posted
This week two fierce storms have battered an already wet and weary England and Wales. Flood waters have been rising to record levels. The British government has swung into action in the face of what's been called 'an almost unparalleled natural crisis'.
Topics: floods, storm-disaster, foreign-affairs, rainfall, united-kingdom
