Australia

A new visa condition will require new migrants to settle outside Sydney, Melbourne, and southeast Queensland for up to five years, according to the Morrison government’s four-point plan to address over-population in the east coast’s population hubs. The new visa condition would apply to about 45 percent of the total migrant intake—notably, migrants not bound […]

Controversy surrounding Victoria University’s cancellation of a fully-paid event booking has pushed the issue of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in the Australian education system back into the spotlight. The university claimed they had to cancel a Sept. 21 event for the screening of a documentary exposé on China’s Confucius Institutes because they accidentally “double […]

SYDNEY—Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) said on Oct. 9 it will refund fees taken out of dead client accounts and unwind a controversial system of charging customers commissions on financial products. The changes, sparked by damaging revelations from a powerful inquiry into financial sector misconduct, come during a time of upheaval for Australia’s biggest financial […]

Australian Federal Police have made three arrests and seized 496 kilograms of MDMA from a shipping container in Sydney on Oct. 6. After the container’s arrival from Turkey at Port Botany on Sept. 28, officers with the Australian Border Force (ABF) found concealed packages of MDMA, also known as ecstasy, inside four industrial mincing machines during screening. The […]

 Scouts Australia apologised on Friday (October 5) to victims of sexual abuse in its organisation after an official inquiry found widespread abuse in religious and state-run institutions. The apology came in response to a five-year, government-appointed inquiry into child sexualabuse that delved into more than 8,000 cases of sexual misconduct. The inquiry did not reveal the number of children harmed by Scouts Australia workers, but it heard evidence that a former […]

The Melbourne Vietnamese community held a rally in Federation Square on Sept. 30 to protest against the invasion of Vietnam by the Chinese Communist Party through its “One Belt, One Road” project. The organizers of the rally had a warning for anyone listening: if Australia does not guard against the influence of the Chinese Communist […]

A university leader spoke out about importing the growing culture of “safe spaces” and the negative effect it has had on free speech in Australian universities, The Australian reported. According to Concordia University – Portland, safe spaces were conceived in the U.S. during the women’s movement in the 1960s when women created a space to […]

A car that was attempting to overtake a camper van in Nilgen, Western Australia, crashed head-on into a minibus traveling in the opposite direction, according to released by police on Oct. 4. The Western Australia Police Force said the incident happened on Sept. 25, and that there were no serious injuries. Ten people were on […]

States and territories have agreed to remove the 10 percent tax on female sanitary products during the Australian Treasurers’ meeting on Oct. 3. The complete list of products has not yet been finalised since there are many to take into account. The GST is expected to be removed by January 2019. The tampon tax brought […]

The president of the Tasmanian branch of the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China has said that allegations of the organisation’s links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are “baseless and false.” “We have no affiliation with, nor are we instructed by, the Chinese Communist Party or any party, for that matter,” said […]

MELBOURNE—Australia’s government expects the nation’s resource and energy exports to hit a record of A$252 billion ($182 billion) in 2018-2019, buoyed by climbing prices for commodities such as natural gas and by a weaker Australian dollar. However, the country’s Department of Industry also said in a report that the value of such exports would edge […]

YENNORA, Australia—Auctioneer Ian Sharp has been selling Australian agricultural products to the highest bidder since 1968, and he’s never seen demand like this before. Earlier this year, the benchmark price for fine Australian merino wool gained a foothold above the once mythic A$20/kg (about $6.60/lb) price, as one of Australia’s worst-ever droughts leaves farmers struggling […]

SYDNEY—The United States is working on a counter-offer to stop Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. from building internet infrastructure in Papua New Guinea (PNG), its top diplomat to Australia said on Sept. 28. The bid comes two years after Huawei first agreed to build a network there, and as the United States and […]

SYDNEY—Australia’s big banks and wealth managers pursued profit ahead of their customers’ interests and viewed regulatory compliance as a cost rather than a guide to proper conduct, a scathing interim report from a commission of inquiry said on Sept. 28. Australia’s financial sector has been rocked by months of revelations of wrongdoing stemming from the […]

A man from Canberra has had to have eye surgery after being attacked by a seemingly deceased kangaroo that he checked on after seeing the animal on the side of the road on Sept. 11, Canberra Times reported. Billy Willox was on his way to work when he saw something move on the side of Googong […]

SYDNEY—On Sept. 27, Australia increased the jail term to 15 years for anyone convicted of contaminating foodstuffs as a scare over needles found in strawberries and other fruits gripped the country. Police are investigating more than 100 reports of sewing needles found in strawberries, which have forced farmers to dump fruit as demand plummets, and […]

SYDNEY—The chairman of Australia’s public broadcaster resigned on Sept. 27 after allegations he appeared to bow to Turnbull government pressure when he called for the removal of a senior journalist. Justin Milne, chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), said he would resign after widespread anger from staff, labor unions and lawmakers. “My aim, has […]

Chinese cyber attacks are becoming more targeted and calculated. And Beijing plans to continue cyber economic espionage that benefits the Chinese regime—despite signing agreements promising not to.

SYDNEY—Australia will hold an inquiry into the crisis-ridden public broadcaster ABC following allegations its chairman succumbed to political pressure from the Turnbull government by calling for the removal of a senior journalist, Emma Alberici. According to local reports, around 350 journalists of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation gathered outside its Sydney office on Sept. 26, demanding that their […]

An official told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court that the man who allegedly drove his SUV into Melbourne pedestrians gave “multiple answers” about the incident to the authorities, ABC reported on Sept. 25 . When Paramedic Brett Overend brought 32-year-old Saeed Noori to the Royal Melbourne Hospital after the car attack on Dec. 21, 2017, he asked […]