Whistle

Australian pop star performs song Eclipse in second semi-final before Sunday’s final. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThere was a harp. There was a sparkly dress. A lot of smoke. A crescent moon.Yes, there was a mid-song key change, in the best traditions of Eurovision cheese. Continue reading...

Tony Burke says millions of people will be asking why the Liberals have a problem with their parents ‘who don’t speak great English but are great Australians’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLabor has accused Angus Taylor of “desperate dog-whistling” and says millions of Australians will be asking why the Liberal party has a problem with their parents who don’t speak English, amid a backlash to the opposition’s new hardline immigration policies.Immigration advocates, crossbenchers, and the race discrimination commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman, have all criticised a new speech by Taylor, with the Greens likening the Coalition’s approach to a modern revival of the discriminatory White Australia policy. Continue reading...

NSW government urged to investigate if transport department refused to share cost of sensors that would detect a person entering coupling areaFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe potentially life-saving safety upgrades to Sydney’s light rail, which a former Transdev employee has alleged were cancelled in order to save money, would have only cost about $2.2m, according to the whistleblower.The New South Wales government has been urged to investigate whether its transport department declined to share the cost of installing sensors that would detect a person entering the coupling area between two joined trams after a fatal incident in 2023. Continue reading...

Human rights lawyers say NDIS workers and their clients remain at risk despite newly bolstered whistleblower protectionsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWhen Susan* came across wrongdoing at her disability support provider, she faced a choice.Say nothing, and allow her highly vulnerable clients to be put at serious risk. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Transdev undertook ‘coupling project’ after teen trapped between carriages in 2023. Trial restarted after second fatality, ex-employee claims, while Transdev denies ‘assessment’ ever shelvedThe company that operates Sydney’s light rail investigated safety upgrades following a fatal incident in 2023, but cancelled the project due to its cost before a second person died, a whistleblower alleges.After the first death, Transdev successfully trialled sensors that would detect a person entering the coupling area between two joined trams, according to the former employee who requested anonymity. But the project was stopped before another death in 2025, they said. Continue reading...

Democratic Senate hopeful says experience of being key witness in Trump’s first impeachment makes him right choice for FloridaAlex Vindman is not a man to hold a grudge. Ask him about the bullying, intimidation and retribution meted out by Donald Trump and Maga acolytes following his appearance as a key witness in the first of the president’s two first-term impeachments, and he almost shrugs it off.“For people that know anything about me, I basically smile all the time,” he says. Continue reading...