Free Republic

Australia's largest company has been taken to court for allegedly breaching a contract by outsourcing hundreds of local jobs to India. The Finance Sector Union said it has commenced action in the Fair Work Commission against Commonwealth Bank of Australia for allegedly breaching the CBA Enterprise Agreement. CBA has been accused of defying Clause 36 of the agreement which defines redundancy. Redundancy can occur, according to the clause, if the work is no longer required, the work is required to be done at a different location that is not within reasonable commuting distance or if the work is restructured so...

Australia could become a supplier of weapons and munitions for the United States under a new radical proposal designed to better equip the world’s largest military to deal with any threat in the Indo-Pacific.The Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise, developed in partnership with the United States, is geared towards building local production facilities for missiles and munitions in Australia.Launched in 2021, the project is backed by a government commitment of $16–21 billion over the next decade.Despite some progress—including the release of the Australian government’s GWEO Plan in late 2024—the project still faces obstacles.As a result, its growth has...

The $35 million firearms portal launched to enforce WA’s tough new gun laws has been paused after a security breach. But the Government rejected calls to halt the roll-out as “fear mongering” and senior police insisted the risk was “minor”. A Jarrahdale sports shooting club raised the alarm, after it realised a former club official was still able to access data that included the storage locations of firearms registered to the club’s corporate licence. Police said 10 people were linked to the club’s account and it appeared only one unauthorised person had inadvertently accessed the system. But Commander Lawrence Panaia...

He ran into enemy fire three times to rescue a wounded comrade and help recover the body of another.Fifty-seven years after his acts of bravery in the Vietnam War, Private Richard Norden has been posthumously awarded Australia's highest military honour.An investiture ceremony was held in Rockhampton on Tuesday morning, where the Governor-General presented the Victoria Cross medal to his widow, Robynn Freeman.For family, friends and former colleagues, the day has been "a long time coming".A legacy of mateshipPrivate Norden, from Gundagai in New South Wales, was just 19 years old when his platoon came under attack during the 1968 Battle...

Australia will refuse any US request to join a “hypothetical” conflict with China over Taiwan and won’t make any advance commitment, the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, has said, amid reports Washington is seeking such promises in discussions over the Aukus submarines. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, also pushed back on such a request, alluding to America’s own position of so-called “strategic ambiguity” on whether the US would militarily respond in a conflict over Taiwan. He said Australia wanted to see “peace and security” in the region. Following multiple reports this week that the Pentagon was seeking guarantees from Australia...

Chinese President Xi Jinping says relations with Australia have “turned around” as the two countries stress dialogue and seek to stabilise trade in the face of global tensions. Xi made the remarks as he hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. The six-day visit by Albanese – his second as prime minister – aims to boost economic cooperation with Beijing, Australia’s top trading partner. “No matter how the international landscape may evolve, we should uphold this overall direction unswervingly,” Xi said, acknowledging that China-Australia ties had “risen from the setbacks”....

(Reuters) -The Pentagon is urging Japan and Australia to clarify what role they would play if the U.S. and China went to war over Taiwan, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.Elbridge Colby, the U.S. under-secretary of defense for policy, has been pushing the matter during recent talks with defense officials of both countries, the report said, citing people familiar with the discussions.According to the newspaper, the reported request caught both Tokyo and Canberra off guard, as the U.S. itself does not offer a blank cheque guarantee to defend Taiwan. Colby said in an X post that the Department of Defense...

Five years ago, COVID was all we could think about. Today, we’d rather forget about lockdowns, testing queues and social distancing. But the virus that sparked the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, is still circulating. Most people who get COVID today will experience only a mild illness. But some people are still at risk of severe illness[1] and are more likely to be hospitalised with COVID. This includes older people, those who are immunocompromised by conditions such as cancer, and people with other health conditions such as diabetes. Outcomes also tend to be more severe in those who experience social inequities such as...

Australians will soon be subjected to mandatory age checks across the internet landscape, in what has been described as a huge and unprecedented change. Search engines are next in line for the same controversial age-assurance technology behind the teen social media ban, and other parts of the internet are likely to follow suit. At the end of June, Australia quietly introduced rules forcing companies such as Google and Microsoft to check the ages of logged-in users, in an effort to limit children's access to harmful content such as pornography. But experts have warned the move could compromise Australians' privacy online...

In the early 2000s, Sydney was rocked by a series of gang rapes. Victims were ordinary Australian girls, some as young as 13. The perpetrators were Muslim, mostly Lebanese and some Pakistanis. Two cases—the Skaf brothers case and the Khan brothers case—received extensive newspaper coverage, but the phenomenon was more widespread. Sexual assault rates increased 25 percent between 1996 and 2003 in Sydney, even as every other type of violent crime was declining. The gang rapes were similar to the “grooming gangs” operating in Great Britain during the same period. The difference is that in Britain the problem was allowed...

Lake Eyre (also called Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre) sits in the heart of the Australian outback, the continent's most arid area. Receiving an average of 140 millimeters (5.5 inches) of rain each year, the lake is a dry, salty plain much of the time. But every once in a while, it transforms into an expansive inland sea.Approximately one-sixth of the Australian continent drains toward Lake Eyre, rather than to an ocean. Water often evaporates before it makes it there, although some will end up in the lake every few years. In 2025, extreme autumn rainfall in Queensland flooded several rivers that...

Education Minister Jason Clare has flagged the government is mulling major changes to the national curriculum that would see classes implemented to curb the rising surge in antisemitism.Education Minister Jason Clare has said the government “stands ready” to implement changes to the national school curriculum, including implementing antisemitic prevention classes. On Monday the Victorian government announced the creation of a new anti-hate taskforce in response to a swathe of antisemitic attacks on the Jewish community. Multiple incidents occurred across the city starting last Friday night, including an alleged arson attack on an East Melbourne synagogue. Days later, pro-Palestinian protesters allegedly...

The brief but intense signal, detected by radio telescopes in Western Australia, lasted only a fraction of a second yet became the brightest object in the sky, momentarily outshining entire galaxies and stars. The source of this unexpected burst was Relay 2, a communications satellite launched by NASA in 1964. After both of its transmitters failed in 1967, the satellite had been silent and declared defunct until now. Experts believe the signal wasn't deliberately transmitted by the satellite, but was triggered by an external event. One possibility is an electrostatic discharge: a sudden release of electrical energy, similar to a...

Travel back 20,000 years into the last Ice Age, to a time when the upper reaches of the Blue Mountains were treeless and the ridgelines and mountain peaks laden in snow and ice. At an elevation of 1,073 meters, you will find Dargan Shelter, an ancient rock shelter resembling a large amphitheater. Looking around, you could easily assume this cold and barren high country was too difficult for people to spend time in. But our new research, published in Nature Human Behaviour, indicates Dargan Shelter was occupied as early as the last Ice Age and repeatedly visited during this cold...

The ship that carried Captain James Cook to Australia more than 250 years ago has been found off the coast of Rhode Island, according to a new report by the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM). Known for being the first European vessel to reach eastern Australia between 1768 and 1771, HMS Endeavour was later sold, renamed Lord Sandwich, and repurposed during the American War of Independence. In 1778, the ship was deliberately scuttled by British forces in Newport Harbour, Rhode Island, along with a dozen other vessels, in an effort to block advancing American and French forces. It has remained...

It has long been thought that Australia's Eastern Highlands acted as a barrier to human settlement during the last Ice Age. The treeless and frozen landscape was considered too inhospitable for people to live there, even temporarily. According to a report in The Guardian, however, new research conducted by Australian Museum, the University of Sydney, and the Australian National University in collaboration with First Nations community members indicates that this was not the case. During recent excavations at the Dargan Shelter in the Blue Mountains led by Dharug custodian and knowledge holder Wayne Brennan and archaeologist Amy Mosig Way of...

Security camera footage shows the ridiculous moment a group of would-be arsonists accidentally set their getaway vehicle on fire. South Australia Police have released the footage from a residence in Port Pirie, 124 miles north of Adelaide, showing a car pulling up alongside a fenced-off building at night. A man hops out of the vehicle, which remains idle, and begins to douse the area in liquid. “As seen in the footage, three male suspects had attended an address in Young Street and doused the front of the residence with accelerant,” SA Police said in a statement. The man can be...

Holy ship. Captain James Cook’s famous lost ship Endeavour has been rediscovered off Rhode Island, closing the book on a maritime mystery that has endured for 250 years. The iconic vessel’s alleged final resting spot was detailed in a recent report by the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM), which had been searching for the lost ship since 1999. “This final report is the culmination of 25 years of detailed and meticulous archaeological study on this important vessel,” said museum director Daryl Karp of the document, which he described as the “definitive statement” on the project, Pen News reported. “It has...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday he would accept an investigation into grooming gangs who sexually abused thousands of girls. Starmer had previously resisted a national inquiry into the scandal, Sky News reported, which revealed that mostly Pakistani men had groomed, trafficked and raped young white girls over a decade ago. His change of mind on the matter comes after a government-requested audit found that a nationwide investigation was needed. Starmer told reporters traveling with him to the G7 summit in Canada that he had read the report and would accept the recommendation for a national inquiry. He said...

Several European leaders urged Israel and Iran to de-escalate after Jerusalem launched a “pre-emptive” strike on Iranian military leaders and facilities over night. Iran’s Ayatollah has vowed “harsh punishment” in revenge after Israel launched targeted strikes overnight and launched a flight of suicide bomb drones, but European leaders urged both sides to stay their hands and engage in diplomacy. The United Kingdom, which has given Israel the cold shoulder in many respects since the new left-wing government took power last year rushed to assert it was “not involved in what happened overnight” and said its goal is to “prevent escalation”....