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West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has defended a decision to drop a lawsuit against Perth businessman Tony Galati, saying it would be "unusual and bizarre" to prosecute someone for growing potatoes. The comments come after Mr McGowan confirmed he would not pursue legal action against Mr Galati for allegedly breaching a commercial agreement with industry regulator the Potato Marketing Corporation (PMC). Before deregulation, which was passed by Parliament last year, the PMC launched legal action against Mr Galati, and alleged he deliberately planted more than his designated quota of potatoes. The PMC took legal action on behalf of West Australian...

An editor of a conservative magazine in Australia has been widely condemned for a “revolting" claim that the Manchester bombing should have happened at the headquarters of the ABC, Australia's public broadcaster. In comments that have caused a storm on social media and have been referred to the police, Roger Franklin, the online editor of Quadrant, lamented on the magazine’s website that the victims of the bombing were not panelists who had downplayed the threat of terrorism on Monday night’s Q&A programme, which aired before the Manchester attack. If there had been a shred of justice that blast would have...

The proposed Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A concept for Australia will be an entirely new, unproven diesel-electric submarine class. By putting the cart firmly before the horse, the Australian Department of Defence has accepted maker DCNS’ proposal to define the displacement of the future submarines before the design, equipment selection, integration and validation of systems have been completed. Both the Japanese and the Germans offered alternative, proven platforms — the former an evolved Soryu-class and the latter an amalgam of their Type 212, 214 and 218 designs. The French have offered a submarine design that houses the evolved propulsion system of...

In normal circumstances, Australia’s 22 Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopters (ARHs) would be expected to remain in service until around 2040 — but the chances of them being retired in less than a decade are increasing. This is not because of major problems with the airframes — they have plenty of life left in them — but rather because the Defence Department in general and the army in particular are tired of a series of issues that have affected reliability and cost of ownership. Indeed the feeling about the helicopters has become so negative that Defence might not even go ahead...

Yes, it’s extreme vetting season. It was promised to us during the campaign and ties heavily into the President’s travel ban (which is still locked up in court). Only the vetting isn’t taking place here. You probably recall that little dust-up between Donald Trump and Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull shortly after Trump was sworn into office. They had a few differences of opinion which have supposedly since been resolved, but one serious bone of contention was the roughly 1,200 refugees who are being held on two islands off the Australian coast. Barack Obama had made a deal to take them...

PHOTO: HMAS Adelaide will no longer participate in planned Talisman Sabre exercises with the US. (ABC News: Billy Cooper) Engineers are still trying to identify what is causing problems with the "azimuth" propulsion system on board the $1.5 billion Landing Helicopter Docks (LHDs) HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide. "It may well be a design issue," conceded Rear Admiral Adam Grunsell, the head of maritime systems in Defence's Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group. This week, HMAS Adelaide was placed into dry dock at the Garden Island naval base so the ship's propulsion pods could be removed for a thorough examination. The...

SYDNEY - U.S. Homeland Security officials have begun "extreme vetting" interviews at Australia's offshore detention centers, two sources at the camps told Reuters on Tuesday, as Washington honors a refugee swap that U.S. President Donald Trump had called "a dumb deal". The Trump administration said last month the agreement to offer refuge to up to 1,250 asylum seekers in the centers would progress on condition that refugees satisfied strict checks. In exchange, Australia has pledged to take Central American refugees from a center in Costa Rica, where the United States has expanded intake in recent years, under the deal struck...

Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You l Aussie Song About Muslim Immigrants ________________________ This little ditty has been done in the US as well. Years before. Gene Autrey - from the movie "Bells of Capistrano" in 1942. Don't Bite the hand that Feeds You and another from 1915 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyNM7wUkKAU

President Donald Trump in a recent press briefing with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced, “Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we do - everybody does.” On the heels of the House narrowly passing the first in many steps toward Obamacare repeal and replace, President Trump’s comment caused a bit of a stir, to say the least. MSNBC was all over it. Chris Hayes interviewed fellow socialist Senator Bernie Sanders who was giddy over Trump’s comment. “Thank you Mr. Trump for admitting that universal healthcare is the better way to go,’’ he crowed. Bernie laughed out loud...

A man who squashed a lemon meringue pie into Qantas Airways chief executive Alan Joyce’s face during a public address in Australia said Wednesday he was protesting Joyce’s advocacy for same-sex marriage. Joyce, a gay, Irish-born 50-year-old, was giving a speech to 500 people in a Perth hotel on Tuesday when Tony Overheu approached from behind, pressed the pie in his face then fled. Overheu, a 67-year-old Christian and former sheep farmer, released a statement accusing Qantas and other companies that support marriage equality of “corporate bulling aimed at social engineering.” […] Joyce has been singled out for criticism by...

Britain’s spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members of Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, the Guardian has been told. GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious “interactions” between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added. Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians,...

On Thursday night, President Trump welcomed Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnball to New York City. Melania and POTUS hosted Turnball and his wife at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan. Though it was an event-filled night, packed with attendees like former mayor Rudy Giuliani and John Travolta, it was Melania who stole the show. FLOTUS veered from her traditional blue and black attire, instead opting for a yellow gown. The one-shoulder silk Dior silhouette was a gorgeous go-to for the spring event. Vogue compares the gown to her Inaugural ball dress -- both graceful off-the-shoulder gowns with...

A man is suing American Airlines for $100,000 after he was crushed by two obese passengers during a 14-hour flight and left with permanent back and neck injuries. Michael Anthony Taylor, 67, claims airline staff refused to let him change seats on the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, despite his desperate pleas to move. The Wollongong man says he was forced to crouch, kneel, brace and stand throughout the lengthy flight, which also aggravated his existing condition of curvature of the spine.

During a meeting Thursday night with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, President Donald Trump praised Australia’s universal health care system. He made the comments while insisting that Republicans are “united” in their push to repeal Obamacare and praising the legislation passed by the House on Thursday. “It’s a very good bill right now. The premiums are going to come down, very substantially. The deductibles are going to come down. It’s going to be fantastic health care. Right now Obamacare is failing. We have a failing health care,” Trump said. “I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend...

It was a well-meaning campaign designed to address bullying of LGBT students in Australian schools. But a day after its high-profile launch - backed by some celebrities - the petition was withdrawn following a swirl of controversy. So what happened?On Tuesday the open letter, organised by a Sydney man, called on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to commit A$6m (£4m; $4.5m) to funding a new anti-bullying programme. With a focus on LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] issues in schools and domestic violence, the programme would target "all forms of bullying, including that which is based on religion, race, gender, faith,...

TWO young Australian backpackers have told their horror account of being kidnapped, assaulted and robbed at gunpoint while travelling through Guatemala. Jayson Peter Kelly, 25, and Kirsten Smith, 25, from Cairns, Queensland were just eight weeks into their nine-month backpacking adventure — a trip they had planned for two years — when what was supposed to be a trip of lifetime turned into a living nightmare. Speaking to news.com.au from Costa Rica, a shaken Mr Kelly recounted the terrifying experience to warn other Australian tourists visiting the Central American country. The couple were on a shuttle bus, organised through a...

North Korea said it was ready to sink a US aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, while US President Donald Trump prepared to call on China and Japan to assist in mounting pressure on the rogue nation. The United States ordered the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to sail into waters off the Korean peninsula in response to growing concern over the North's nuclear and missile tests, and its threats to attack the US and its Asian allies. The US government has not specified where the carrier strike group is as it approaches the area. The aircraft carrier...

It feels as if a week doesn’t go by without North Korea’s diminutive dictator, Kim Jong-un, threatening to nuke somebody… usually the United States. In fact, it happens so often that it’s barely worth reporting on it any longer. But following the recent productive meetings between Australian leaders and Vice President Pence, the chubby autocrat has decided to expand the exclusive club of North Korean nuclear targets to include the Land Down Under. (NBC News) North Korea has launched into a war of words against Australia over the country’s alliance with the U.S., warning the country is within striking range...

NORTH Korea has threatened to hit Australia with a nuclear strike if it continues to follow the United States. The stern warning comes after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Thursday that the rogue nuclear-armed nation would be hit with further Australian sanctions as a clear message that its behaviour will not be tolerated. Ms Bishop also called on China to do more to pressure North Korea into stamping out its hostile and aggressive ways and dumping its nuclear warheads and ballistic missile program. In response to the comments, North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency on Saturday quoted a foreign...

Earlier this month I was asking what, if anything, was going to happen with the Obama era refugee deal which had been struck with Australia. They’ve got thousands of migrants, primarily from Iraq, Syria and other troubled regions, basically stuck in some island camps where they are coming into conflict with the local residents. The United States had said that we would be taking more than a thousand of them off their hands, but the President somewhat famously referred to it as “a dumb deal” he would have to study. I suppose the study period is over because we got...