The Chinese Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been sentenced to death by a court in China.
Yang Hengjun
Yang Hengjun, a pro-democracy activist, has been detained for the past five years. His death sentence will likely be commuted to life imprisonment after two years of “good behaviour”.
Greg Combet, a former minister in the Rudd-Gillard governments, has been appointed Chairman of the Future Fund.
Greg Combet, new Chairman of the Future Fund
The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, made the announcement at a press conference today.
Australia Day 1973 passed almost unnoticed, according to one radio news report, but Gough Whitlam used his 53rd day as prime minister to announce a search for a new national anthem.
Listen to a news report from radio 3DB in Melbourne on January 26, 1973, including a clip from Whitlam’s speech (1m)
Whitlam’s announcement of a replacement for God Save the Queen came in his Australia Day address. He said:
The Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, has responded to the Prime Minister’s Press Club appearance today.
The rhetoric could charitably be described as over-the-top:
The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has defended the changes the government has made to the Stage 3 tax cuts.
In an address to the National Press Club, Albanese confirmed that the tax system will remain progressive with the reintroduction of the 37% tax scale. Whereas the Stage 3 cuts excluded people on lower incomes, all taxpayers will now receive a tax cut from July 1, but those on higher incomes have had their cut reduced.
The libertarian economist and newly-elected President of Argentina, Javier Milei, has delivered a strident defence of capitalism at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
This is the official timetable of key dates for the Dunkley by-election on March 2, 2024.
The dates show the election is being conducted within the minimum timeframe whereby polling day must be no less than 33 days from the issue of the writ.
2024 Dunkley By-Election Timetable
Event
Date
Explanation
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a “country report” on the Australian economy, warning that growth is weakening and inflation remains persistently high.
As 2024 starts, a reminder that across the nine federal, state and territory jurisdictions, there are eight Labor governments.
Current Australian Heads of Government & Opposition Leaders – from December 21, 2024
No.
Jurisdiction
PM/Premier/
Chief Minister
Age
Party
Since
Opposition Leader
Age
Party
Since
1.
AUSTRALIA
Anthony Albanese
62
ALP
23.05.2022
It is time to review the year in digital technology. Oh, what fun! As with prior reviews, we will arrange this review like an award ceremony.
There are three criteria for an award:
Among the seemingly endless coverage of Queen Elizabeth II dying at age 96 in Balmoral, Scotland, a legal fact gets lost: this event generates exactly zero change in law. There are non-law implications – historical, cultural, symbolic, administrative – but not legal change.
Homeowners will face mortgage rates near 5.5% in a little over a year, according to a survey of 22 leading Australian economists.
The Conversation’s 2022-23 forecasting survey predicts an increase in the Reserve Bank’s cash rate from its present 0.85% to a peak of 3.1% by next August.
Census data to be released Tuesday shows Australia changing rapidly before COVID, gaining an extra one million residents from overseas in the past five years, almost all of them in the three years before borders were closed.
For the first time since the question has been asked in the census, more than half of Australia’s residents (51.5%) report being either born overseas or having an overseas-born parent.
More than one quarter of the one million new arrivals have come from India or Nepal.
The really bizarre thing about calls for a UK-style windfall profits tax on gas is that Australia’s already got one.