Updated: Cost of living in focus as Australia’s election race hits final stretch
Updated: 6:30pm (AEST)Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison criss-crossed the country in a final day of campaigning, insisting he could still win Saturday’s election despite polls pointing to a change of government or hung parliament. Morrison and Labor Opposition leader Anthony Albanese targeted marginal seats in the final 48 hours of the six-week campaign […]
Australia election polls show race tightening in final campaign stretch
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia’s national election has become too close to call, polls out on Wednesday showed, as the ruling conservative coalition narrowed the gap with the main opposition Labor Party, three days before the country decides on a new government. Centre-left Labor’s lead over the Liberal-National coalition has shrunk to 51 to 49 per cent […]
As Australia votes, Indigenous people press call for inclusion in constitution
Canberra, AustraliaReuters Activists at one of the world’s longest-running protests for the rights of Indigenous people are not pinning their hopes for change on Australia’s 21st May general election. The election campaign has been dominated by debate about rising prices, COVID-19 and climate change, with the plight of Australia’s 700,000 or so Indigenous people, who […]
Australia, NZ show support for Ukraine at ANZAC Day commemorations
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Thousands of people gathered across Australia and New Zealand on Monday to honour military personnel on Anzac Day, after the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled or limited public gatherings and commemorations in the past two years. Anzac Day originally commemorated a bloody battle on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey during World War I. On 25th […]
Updated: Australian election campaign begins, polls show opposition ahead
Updated: 2pm (AEST)Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government could lose the federal election to be held on 21st May, according to polls on Monday, even as they showed him consolidating his position as the country’s preferred leader on the first day of campaigning. A Newspoll survey conducted for The Australian newspaper showed Morrison […]
Australia PM sets general election for 21st May
Melbourne/Sydney, Australia Reuters Australia will hold a general election on 21st May, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday, triggering a campaign expected to be fought over cost-of-living pressures, climate change and questions of trust and competence of the major parties. Morrison played up economic uncertainties and security threats in announcing the election, saying this […]
Australian Anglican bishops call on government to increase refugee intake
Sydney, Australia A group of 40 Anglican Bishops have written to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, calling on him to lift Australia’s national refugee intake. The call for an increase comes in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. The 40 bishops co-signed an open […]
Australia declares east coast floods a national emergency
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia declared a national emergency on Wednesday in response to devastating floods along its east coast, and designated catastrophe zones in towns swept away by swollen rivers. “Australia is becoming a harder country to live in because of these natural disasters,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday after touring the worst-hit Northern […]
Sydney hit by torrential rains as flood warnings stretch across Australia’s east coast
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Flood warnings stretched across Australia’s east coast on Tuesday and tens of thousands of Sydney residents fled their homes overnight as torrential rains again pummelled a large swath of the country. Australia’s eastern rivers were already near capacity following record downpours in several parts of Queensland and New South Wales states over recent […]
China must join global action against Russia’s Ukraine war – Australia
Sydney, AustraliaReuters China must act on its declarations of promoting world peace and join the effort to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Australia’s prime minister said on Monday, warning that the world was in danger of being reshaped by an “arc of autocracy”. Scott Morrison also suggested in a wide-ranging speech that Russia’s invasion was […]