On Monday, Australia was transfixed by fresh sexual misconduct allegations against Geoffrey Rush – one of the nation’s most celebrated actors. Australian actress Yael Stone alleged that Mr Rush behaved inappropriately towards her during a theatre production in Sydney in 2010-11. Mr Rush, 67, has denied her accusations. Ms Stone, 33, said that she had […]

Australians will vote in a general election on 18 May, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced. The poll will decide whether the conservative government wins a third term or is replaced by a Labor administration led by Bill Shorten. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives will be contested, and half of the 76 […]

Music festival-goers across Australia have been warned about a “dangerous orange pill”, after a young man died of a suspected drug overdose. Joshua Tam, 22, became ill at the Lost Paradise festival in New South Wales (NSW) on Saturday. He died in hospital. Police said attendees had made “sophisticated” attempts to carry drugs, such as […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — When vegan activists halted morning traffic on Monday at one of Australia’s busiest intersections, Prime Minister Scott Morrison described their actions as “un-Australian.” The traffic disruption in Melbourne was part of a “Day of Action” protesting the consumption of animal products, during which activists also chained themselves to machinery at an abattoir […]

The Australian government says it will investigate how thousands of sheep died on a live export ship last year. About 2,400 animals succumbed to heat stress while travelling from Perth to three nations in the Middle East in August, according to the government. One minister said he was “shocked and deeply disturbed” after seeing footage […]

A right-wing party in Australia discussed softening the nation’s strict gun laws as it sought donations from a US lobby group in a bid for greater political power, video recordings show. Representatives from One Nation, an anti-Islam minor party, met with the National Rifle Association last year. Australian PM Scott Morrison says the videos, secretly […]

The number of new corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has plunged by 89% since unprecedented bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, scientists say. The events, which damaged two-thirds of the world’s largest reef system, are now being blamed for triggering a collapse in coral re-growth last year. “Dead corals don’t make babies,” said lead […]

Australia passed sweeping legislation Thursday that threatens huge fines for social media companies and jail for their executives if they fail to rapidly remove “abhorrent violent material” from their platforms. The law — strongly opposed by the tech industry — puts Australia at the forefront of a global movement to hold companies like Facebook and […]

The Australian Senate has formally censured a lawmaker who sparked outrage by blaming the New Zealand mosque attacks on Muslim migration. Senator Fraser Anning, a far-right independent, made his comments on the day of the shootings in Christchurch which killed 50 people last month. On Wednesday, lawmakers from across the political spectrum condemned his “inflammatory […]

New Zealand politicians have voted overwhelmingly in favour of new gun restrictions during the first stage of a bill they hope to rush into law by the end of next week. The bill would ban the types of weapons a gunman used to kill 50 people at two mosques last month. The bill was backed […]