The head girl of one of Australia’s most prestigious girls’ schools has sparked debate with a speech accusing it of putting profits before students. Sarah Haynes used her year-end speech to accuse Ravenswood School of peddling an unrealistic image of perfection. The speech was posted to YouTube and provoked strong responses, both positive and negative, on social media. The school ...

Muslims in Sydney experience discrimination and verbal slurs at three times the rate of all other Australians, a study that is the first of its kind in the country has found. Nearly two thirds of Muslims surveyed had been subjected to racism, with one in 10 reporting such encounters as happening “often or very often”. Despite much higher rates of experiencing racism than the Australian average, nearly 86 per cent felt ...

Police have blamed the death of a 25-year-old Sydney woman on a drug overdose at the Stereosonic music festival at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday. Another woman, 22, is in an induced coma in hospital after going to the same festival, where almost 70 people were charged with drug offences. The 25-year-old, from Oyster Bay, was taken from the festival to Concord Hospital, ...

At least six people were arrested on Sunday as anti-Islam and anti-racism protesters faced off in simultaneous protests held across Australia. There were violent scenes in Melton, in Melbourne’s west, and weapons including knives were seized when Reclaim Australia campaigners clashed with anti-racism protesters. Police were forced to subdue some protesters with capsicum spray. Race Discrimination Commissioner Dr Tim Soutphommasane ...

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will deliver a national security statement today outlining his approach to groups like IS, also to reassure people that his Government will do everything in order to keep them safe. The plan to improve the current system was proposed more than a year ago and formally agreed to by the Commonwealth and all state and territory ...

Treasurer responds following former defence minister Kevin Andrews’s call for Australia to put ‘boots on the ground’ in Syria The treasurer, Scott Morrison, warned against a “hot-headed” response to the crisis in Syria, following the intervention of the former defence minister, Kevin Andrews, who has called on Australia to put boots on the ground. Andrews, an Abbott loyalist who lost ...

Kevin Andrews has been helpful, suggesting the government should push the United States to put troops on the ground in Syria. Two senior government members, treasurer Scott Morrison and innovation minister Christopher Pyne, have pointed out that Australia is hardly going to go at it alone. Pyne added that no one (that means Kevin) suggested such a thing the last ...

Wearing Australian flags as capes and flashing chest tattoos proclaiming ‘Anzac’, the organisers of the Brisbane Reclaim Australia rally were forced to let Jimmy Barnes vocals do the talking for them, when their microphone failed to launch. Emma Miller Place, just outside the CBD, was home to duelling rallies on Sunday, with fences and a strong police line dividing Reclaim Australia supporters from the counter ...

A 10-month-old baby boy sustained “horrendous” water burns to 40 per cent of his body in circumstances that investigators are treating as domestic violence, police allege. The baby was at home on Castlereagh Street in Penrith on Sunday afternoon with a 23-year-old man, who had been in a relationship with the boy’s mother, Detective Superintendent Brett McFadden told reporters. Investigators, including ...

Bellamy’s Australia has now apologised to its customers, many of whom have been unable to find cans of formula in their local supermarket. The Tasmania-based company, which makes Australia’s only certified organic infant formula, blamed “unprecedented demand” for its products last month. Following angry comments from customers, Bellamy’s said on its Facebook page that “purchases of products solely for the ...