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Piccoli fires back in Coalition bust-up over education
NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has returned fire at his federal Coalition colleagues over education funding, warning schools in this state would be worse off under Tony Abbott's policy and defending his own government's decision to sign up to the Gonski deal. He also urged other states to sign up for Labor's funding offer. Federal opposition education spokesman ...
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Artists flag fresh symbols of a nations hope and ideals
Asking a country to change its flag is like asking a country to change its name - so bonded is a nation to its flag, it's rarely changed except in circumstances of upheaval, says the editor of the literary ...
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Retracing the fall of the car industry
An Australian classic: the 1971 Ford Falcon XY GTHO. In the mid-1960s, when Australia's trade minister Sir John McEwen was urging Holden and Ford to seek export markets in Asia, the leader of one of Asia's poorest countries decided his country needed a car industry. Defying the advice of economists, he ordered the country's biggest company to start making cars - with Ford's ...
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On the wings of a departing Falcon
A few years later the company invented the ute. The 1934 Ford Coupe Utility was - as legend has it - spurred into development by the wife of a farmer who wrote to Ford asking for a "vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday, and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays". The Falcon arrived in 1960. The first Falcon, the XK, was derived from a US product, but hit the right note with ...
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Joyce seeks bail as wife pleads for accuser to set record straight
''Life sentence'': Matt Joyce. Condemned to a ''life sentence'', in the words of his wife, Matt Joyce will plead with Dubai authorities to extend his bail while he appeals against a 10-year jail term and $25 million fine for property fraud. Angela Higgins is calling on her husband's main accuser, fellow Australian David Brown, to have the courage ...
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Hazel - a rock stars rock a nations role model
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Hollow promises an enduring tragedy
John Pat's death was to be the catalyst for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Begun in 1987, the inquiry spent almost four years and more than $40 million investigating 99 deaths, 32 of them in Western Australia. Twenty-five years later, Kwementyaye Briscoe's death was to prove that, far from breaking the vicious cycle of indigenous abuse and neglect in ...
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Gaming the politics of TV sports bet reform
Tom Waterhouse is an object of rage for opponents of TV sports betting. Run a cursor across the acres of comments on stories about sports betting and the trumpeting of live odds on TV and an unmistakable message for government emerges: Stop this now. In a letter published in Fairfax Media on Thursday, Lynne Poleson put it like this: ''Stephen Conroy and his cohort are fond of ...
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Doubling of indigenous in prisons alarms leaders
Aboriginal leaders have warned of a crisis in the justice system with an explosion in the black prison population, a spike in the number of juveniles being detained and continuing high numbers of deaths in custody. A report released on Friday by the federal government has confirmed the number of indigenous Australians in prisons and police custody over the past two decades has more than ...
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Army takes to the streets to battle poverty
More than 100,000 volunteers will spend this weekend knocking on doors to help the Salvation Army address Australia's rising rate of poverty. The two-day Red Shield Appeal Doorknock aims to raise $10.2 million, part of an overall fund-raising target of $79 million. The Salvation Army's Major Bruce Harmer said the funds would help more than one million people living in poverty. ...
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Hawkes deep affection for former wife Hazel
Former prime minister Bob Hawke has paid tribute to his late ex-wife Hazel for being a ''constant support'' through difficult times. Mr Hawke said he remembered Hazel ''with deep affection and gratitude''. ''She was more than a wife and mother, being father as well during my frequent absences as I pursued an industrial then political ...
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Outnumbered by the girls hes the last man standing
With the death in Barbados on Thursday of James Emmanuel ''Doc'' Sisnett, at the age of 113 years and 90 days, Jiroemon Kimura, of Japan, has become the last man alive to have been born in the 19th century. Literally the last man. There are, according to the Gerontolgy Research Group at UCLA, 21 women born before New Year's Day, 1901, who are still with us, most of ...
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Sydney school fails to report doping
Pumped: School boys are hitting the gym and supplements in the quest to be fitter and stronger. Serial steroid abuse by a Cranbrook School student was investigated by the police and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority after the boy admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs while representing the private school in rowing and rugby. But Cranbrook failed to inform sports authorities of ...
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Ford pullout sparks worry industry is finished
Concerns about Australia's remaining car industry have escalated after Ford's decision to pull out, prompting calls for a return to higher import tariffs, moves to deflate the Australian dollar, and even the appointment of a ''car tsar'' to stop the industry from sinking altogether. Industry sources have hinted that Holden and Toyota could be gone from Australian ...
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Cosy moments may fail to keep the home fires burning
Warming up: Maya Rose Pickles, 3, and Izzy Tapia, 6, with their grandmother Denise Pickles. Ms Pickles says she uses her fireplaces in her Mosman home ...
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Banks among top companies making use of tax havens
Almost two-thirds of Australia's top 100 companies listed on the sharemarket have subsidiaries in tax havens or low-tax jurisdictions, a new report shows. Further, 13 of the top 20 companies have entities in well-known tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda, including two of the big four ...
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Odds favour change to TV gambling ads
Run a cursor across the acres of comments on stories about sports betting and the trumpeting of live odds on TV and an unmistakable message for government emerges: Stop this now. Lynne Poleson, of Kingsford, put it like this on Thursday: ''Stephen Conroy and his cohort are fond of talking about 'working families'. Have they not seen the figures on compulsive gambling and ...
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Stedman wins Book of the Year
Recently the film rights to her book were snapped up by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios and now it's been awarded Book of the Year at the 2013 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs).Stedman's debut novel was also awarded Literary Fiction Book of the Year and Newcomer of the Year at the awards, held in Sydney as part of the Sydney Writers' Festival.Brisbane-based writer ...
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Freight train hits kills Melbourne driver
Melbourne man was struck and killed by a speeding freight train in Brevard County early Friday morning.Aaron Thomas Imes was headed east on Eau Gallie Boulevard in his 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis just before 3:45 a.m. Friday, Melbourne police said in an statement.At the same time, a freight train was crossing at the same location. As Imes tried to cross the tracks, police say, he hit a small ...
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Going bush First Bloke heads back to his roots
Four months ago, Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s partner Tim Mathieson quietly bought a bush block on the banks of the Goulburn River near Jamieson, in north-east Victoria. Mr Mathieson has since placed a caravan on the secluded and partly forested block, which backs on to the river as it enters Lake Eildon. Between periods in residence at The Lodge in Canberra, Mr Mathieson – known ...
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Swans way too strong for Magpies
Dual Brownlow Medallist Adam Goodes kicked three goals in a brilliant all-round performance and clashed with a fan as Sydney claimed a 47-point AFL win over Collingwood on Friday night. The Swans won 15.12 (102) to 8.7 (55), thanks in large part by holding Collingwood to a combined tally of 1.3 in the second and third quarters. Indigenous superstar Goodes gathered 30 disposals in a dazzling ...
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Market dives below 5000 points
It tumbled to a five-week low, with $26 billion wiped from the value of the bourse. This continued the sour mood from yesterday, when investors fretted over the prospect US and Japanese central banks might in future withdraw their support for the two economies through bond purchases. The fall today was the fourth straight day of losses, and it was the worst weekly performance on the local market ...
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Australia gives $11.5 million for Syrian refugees in Lebanon
Bob Carr said Friday following a meeting with Prime Minister designate Tammam Salam.Carr said Australia supports Lebanon's disassociation policy from the Syrian crisis and his country is committed to ...
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AFL Adam Goodes leads Sydney Swans to imerious win over Collingwood Magpies
Collingwood 3066 Sydney's 47-point win over Collingwood has been marred by a spectator being evicted from the MCG following an incident involving Adam ...
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Wests Tigers steal NRL win over Cowboys
A 78th-minute David Nofoaluma try sealed a controversial 22-20 NRL win for the Wests Tigers over North Queensland on Friday night and ended a seven-game losing streak. In atrocious conditions at Leichhardt Oval, the Cowboys were below their best against a brave Tigers outfit but were desperately unlucky not to leave with the competition points. The home side showed far more fight than last ...
Perth Focus
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Major redevelopment plans for Perth eyesoars
The City of Perth has major projects in the works to redevelop the city’s CBD in-line with the aims of broader projects like Green City and Populate Perth, but some residents remain wary of red tape, while others fear for the future of historical sites such as Langley.
Perth is the commercial, transport and cultural backbone of Western Australia. This city of almost 2 million people is the fourth largest in Australia, but has grown consistently faster than many other cities, outstripping the national average and was ranked by The Economist in 2010 as the eighth ‘most livable city’ in the world, which means we have some of the best living conditions on the planet. Read more
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