News

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has hit back at the Newman government’s ban on federal Education Minister Peter Garrett visiting schools in the state by ordering all Labor MPs to stand outside school gates and push the Gonski reforms to parents that are dropping off and collecting their children.

The New South Wales government have launched a $1.5 million road safety awareness campaign designed to discourage people from texting while driving. The “Get Your Hands Off It” campaign takes a tongue-in-cheek approach specifically designed to target the 20-to-29-year-old age bracket, with the accompanying video going viral.

Police have begun work on a property in the Riverina region of New South Wales in an effort to discover the body of anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay, who went missing thirty-six years ago after a series of confrontations with Griffith marijuana growers.

Recalling his own ridicule at the hands of Julia Gillard, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey has rejected prime ministerial criticism of the Liberal Party.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says a menu circulating on the internet from a Liberal National Party fundraising menu is “grossly sexist and offensive”, and the Opposition should disendorse former Howard government minister Mal Brough as the candidate for the Queensland seat of Fisher.

The Palmer United Party has unveiled the first of its Victorian candidates in Melbourne today, with former world champion boxer Barry Michael and AFL legend Doug Hawkins being revealed as the fledgling party’s latest signings.

Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett has been banned from setting foot on the campus of any Queensland school, with the Newman Government claiming that it was taking action to prevent the state’s educational facilities from becoming “the venue for the Gonski media roadshow.”

Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham has urged Prime Minister Julia Gillard to adopt the Coalition’s policy of sending boats carrying asylum seekers back into Indonesian waters in order to address the severity of the people smuggling issue.

TRAVEL WRITER WINNER | The contagious rhythm of Havana, Cuba sweeps up this month’s travel writer winner, EMMA O’NEILL in its heady, steamy embrace. Emma is our Great Travel Writer competition winner for May, and has won a £250 voucher with Topdeck.

Adrian Bayley was on parole for raping five women and on bail for an assault when he raped and murdered Jill Meagher, a court has heard.

The Queen is carrying on with official engagements while Prince Philip remains in a London hospital including granting an audience to the governor-general.

The federal attorney-general doesn’t want to be drawn on whether Australia is using information gathered by a controversial US surveillance program Prism.

On Monday 3 June Western Australians in London gathered to celebrate Western Australia Day, marking the establishment of the Swan River colony in 1829.

Two men have died and two remain in a critical condition after drinking a bad batch of home brew grappa in rural Queensland, with the government saying that it will investigate the incident in order to determine whether steps must be taken to prevent the same thing happening again.

View the digital edition of this week’s FREE Australian Times newspaper, available every Tuesday across London.

Leadership speculation in the federal government has put the country at risk of an early election after Independent MP Tony Windsor claimed that the deal he made in 2010 to support the Gillard Government would be “null and void” if the Australian Labor Party were to change leaders before the...

Artists, jurists, academics and sports legends have been honoured on the Queen’s Birthday list, released in Australia on Monday.

Australian border protection authorities won’t yet recover the bodies of dead asylum seekers near Christmas Island.

Labor would attract almost seven per cent more votes on a two-party preferred basis if Kevin Rudd was prime minister, a poll says.

The son of controversial former Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, John Bjelke-Petersen, has quit the Liberal-National Party and today announced that he will run as a candidate for the Palmer United Party.

Former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has revealed that she underwent surgery to have a tumour removed from a lymph node in her neck last week and has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Former Labor leader Kevin Rudd says he is available to campaign in seats across the country, but is not a candidate for the leadership.

A live 12-hour interactive show about the Great Barrier Reef, featuring underwater tweets and footage from divers, is being broadcast on YouTube. Watch the video below.

The ABC will stop making the animated version of Bananas in Pyjamas, featuring loved children's characters B1 and B2. ABC have seen a recent decline in overseas merchandise sales.

A piece of Western Australia's remote East Kimberley region will be able to be seen from the top of the Eiffel Tower when an enormous artwork by an Aboriginal artist is unveiled on a Paris museum's rooftop.

The family of the British nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, who committed suicide days after a prank call by two Australian DJs has slammed the radio station for giving one of the DJs, Michael Christian, a major award.

London Legacy will host their annual reception on Thursday 13 June at 6pm in the Downer Room at Australia House.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison was left looking red-faced as a dozen journalists abandoned a press conference he’d called outside Canberra’s Parliament House to chase down Labor rival Joel Fitzgibbon.

Communications minister Stephen Conroy says he’ll be meeting with stakeholders in Canberra on Thursday to discuss the latest asbestos scare in communities living around the national broadband network (NBN) work sites.

The awarding of "Top Jock" to Australian DJ Michael Christian, one of the 2DayFM radio jocks embroiled in the UK royal prank call scandal during which nurse Jacintha Saldanha took her own life, has been labelled in "bad taste".

A United Nations treaty co-authored by Australia and designed to restrict the sale of illegal arms in the global marketplace has been signed by Junior Defence Minister Mike Kelly in New York City earlier this week.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague will meet his Ecuadorian counterpart Ricardo Patino on 17 June to discuss the future of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has rejected Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s accusation that Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop had “embarrassed the nation” by claiming that the Indonesian government supported the Coalition’s policy to turn back the boats of asylum seekers if elected later this year.

Queenslanders will each fork out an additional $181 as a result of the Newman Government’s second budget announcement yesterday, which is expected to earn the state an additional $1 billion in revenue over the next fiscal year.

Former cabinet minister Joel Fitzgibbon has openly ridiculed Labor HQ in the wake of opinion polls showing the government heading for a massive defeat, whilst backbencher Graham Perrett likened the situation ahead of the 14 September federal election to an Indiana Jones movie.

A former Sydney bishop says the Catholic Church needs to fundamentally change to address its abuse crisis.

One Nation founder Pauline Hanson has claimed that she understands the lifestyle of Australia’s “young ones” in a national radio interview that discusses the controversial politician signing up to Facebook in the lead-up to the upcoming federal election.

The boys from Stoke Travel are well versed in the art of the European party festival in Haro. Here, WADE GRAVY talks us through his favourite — the Batalla de Vino.

View the digital edition of this week’s FREE Australian Times newspaper, available every Tuesday across London.

Pauline Hanson is making her seventh bid for parliament, lining up to run for the Senate as a One Nation candidate.

Senior Liberal Malcolm Turnbull has joined Treasurer Wayne Swan in renewing calls for Australia to think again about becoming a republic.

Mr Yunupingu, the former Yothu Yindi lead singer, has died aged 56 at his home in the Northern Territory.

Gruen Sweat, a four-part spin off from the original Gruen Transfer, has won a prestigious Rose d’Or award for Best Entertainment Show in Brussels.

A number of Australians are preparing to take part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in September, with London today announced as the host city for the start and finish of the 2013-14 race.

The Britain-Australia Society and the Western Australian European Office will host a WA wine tasting event at the Australian High Commission on Thursday 13 June to celebrate the founding day of Western Australia.

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek has welcomed the Irish government’s move to introduce laws for cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging.

Australian-owned company AussieMite have apologised for a new advertising campaign depicting a sacramental wafer being dipped into their yeast based spread during a Catholic mass.

The Australian High Commissioner to the UK, Mike Rann, laid a wreath yesterday in London to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. Mr Rann told attendees the Allied forces would have lost World War II had they had not achieved victory in the six year-long naval...

OPINION | In the wake of yet another racist incident in Australia involving Eddie McGuire and Adam Goodes, PAUL BLEAKLEY asks, is our jokey larrikinism masking a serious cultural problem of casual racism?

The AFL has backed Collingwood’s refusal to stand down president Eddie McGuire for his racial comment directed at Sydney player Adam Goodes.