Australian News

Original URL: https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/2024-10-22/ty-article/.premium/australian-israeli-former-diplomat-mark-regev-under-trial-for-genocide-advocacy/00000192-b4e6-d006-a5b3-feee3fa30000

State Finance Minister Courtney Houssos on Wednesday revealed two government agencies – Revenue NSW and Service NSW – had charged about $144 million in merchant fees since 2016 across 92 million card transactions.

The payments were charged despite the practice being flagged as unlawful in legal advice received from the Crown Solicitor’s Office on three occasions between February 2016 and December 2022, Houssos revealed on Wednesday.

The payments are largely small. Renewing a driver’s licence for three years costs $162. The merchant fee on that transaction would amount to about 71 cents, the government said. Houssos said modelling had shown that over the eight years in which the charges were in place, the average person would have paid about $30 in unlawful fees.

However the government said it could not commit to refunding the illegal payments, in part due to the complexity of identifying who had paid what as a result of privacy stopgaps in online payment systems. Dib said the government was “working on a number of different potential strategies”.

In short:

Police used capsicum spray on neo-Nazis who disrupted an asylum seeker rally in Melbourne last night.

The group was clad in black and chanted white supremacist slogans while holding an offensive banner.

Police said no arrests were made and nobody was injured.

In short:

The UN Rights of the Child committee chair is writing to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the Northern Territory's move to lower the age of criminal responsibility, which she says "contravenes" global treaty obligations.

The NT's new conservative Country Liberal Party government legislated a new criminal age of 10 years old during its first parliament sittings this week.

Australia's Children's Commissioner is also calling on Mr Albanese to make child welfare and justice a national cabinet priority.

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The Department of Defence has confirmed Australia provided support for the US strikes on underground bunkers used by Yemen's Houthi rebels "through access and overflight for US aircraft in northern Australia".

The US said its strikes were ordered by President Joe Biden to degrade the Houthi weapons stores and send a message to "our adversaries", which includes Iran.

An Australian official said the support was "consistent with our long-standing alliance commitment and close cooperation, demonstrating the interoperability of our militaries".

In short:

The Northern Territory has passed new laws that lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10, about two years after the previous government raised the age to 12.

It comes a day after the Country Liberal Party government pushed through tougher bail legislation and extra powers for police as part of a suite of law and order changes.

What's next?

New laws on public drinking and assaults on workers are expected to pass when parliament resumes next week.

They found a 110 year old thylacine head in a bucket of ethanol in the back of a cupboard in a museum with RNA intact.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/14326042

Australia’s biggest carbon credit scheme is barely removing any greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, according to a new study, despite hundreds of millions of dollars being pumped into it by businesses and the government.

One of the study’s authors, Dr Megan Evans from UNSW Canberra, said the findings about the Human Induced Regeneration scheme, known as HIR, pointed to “such huge failures that it’s almost beyond belief”.

A female student alleged the school's uniform policy was discriminatory against females

The school said the allegations were "offensive and baseless"

The tribunal found there wasn't enough evidence to conclude the student was being treated unfairly because she was female

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Leaders of a country town that was targeted by a white supremacist group have condemned their actions.

Former mayor says the town remains a safe place for multicultural families.

What's next?

Victoria is continuing to strengthen anti-vilification framework while NSW Police investigations continue.

A government briefing paper estimates telecommunications companies spent almost $8 million in 2020 repairing damage caused by 5G conspiracy theorists, including replacing towers and other communications infrastructure

The vandalism was one of at least 11 similar attacks in NSW this year. Vandals remove nuts from the bolts that secure the towers to the ground, causing them to eventually topple.

WTF ??? Who does this ?

(archive link for those who run into paywall issues)

https://archive.md/f4qWO

In short:

The number of active rentals in Victoria fell by almost 22,000 properties this year, suggesting investors are selling up.

It's being attributed to higher rental standards and increased land taxes in Victoria.

What's next?

It's feared the sell-up will make the market even tighter for renters

The survey described a "sell-off of investment properties around the nation" that was "continuing unabated" and "fuelling fears of an even tighter rental market".

The outlook may be grim for investors, but home owners appeared to be benefiting, snapping up 65 per cent of the properties investors sold, according to PIPA.

First homebuyers in Melbourne have also enjoyed months of falling prices, while most of the rest of the country has experienced continued increases.

CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless labelled falls in rental bonds "significant and surprising" but noted they had not brought the expected rent increases.

Am I going crazy here, or are they just describing that more people are becoming owner-occupiers? The houses 'coming out of the rental market' aren't being set on fire or blown up, people are buying them and living in them...

In short:

A police sergeant has been suspended after she allegedly performed a Nazi salute at the Victoria Police Academy in Melbourne.

Symbols and gestures used by the Nazi Party are banned in public in Victoria under laws introduced in October 2023.

What's next?

The 65-year-old female sergeant is being questioned as part of a criminal investigation.

Exclusive: Anthony D’Adam says civil liberties would be threatened if police could reject rallies based on cost and MPs are afraid to speak out in support of Palestine

Minns has ordered a review of policing resources that have been used on Sydney’s weekly pro-Palestine protests.

Minns publicly reprimanded Stephen Lawrence after the first-term Labor MP accused Israel of the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967 and denying their right of return during a speech to parliament last year.

[An unnamed MP] said government MPs were “absolutely” afraid to speak up about Palestine.

Minns had devoted a lot of time to supporting people in NSW with ties to Israel but hadn’t done the same for those with connections to Gaza or Lebanon, the MP said.

"Have you got Tourette's or something? You know, you just sit there, babble, babble, babble," he said, responding to the interruptions.

Minns told Ben Fordham Live he believes NSW Police should be able to decline formal requests to shut down streets in Sydney for demonstrations.

"As part of that assessment, [police] should be in a position to say, we can't do it this weekend because you've done it for the previous 50 weekends," he said.

In short:

Australia has recorded its first cases of the XEC COVID-19 variant that has been spreading in Europe this year.

The mutation is a "recombinant" variant that is a mix of two previous Omicron subvariants called KS 1.1 and KP 3.3.

What's next?

An infectious disease expert says the strain has the hallmarks of something that could lead to a "summer wave" of infections.