
Neo-Nazis disrupt Aboriginal Anzac Day ceremony in Australia
Australian political leaders have condemned neo-Nazis who interrupted an Aboriginal ceremony at an Anzac Day dawn service in Melbourne on Friday.
Aboriginal representatives were in the middle of their traditional Welcome to Country greeting to about 50,000 people gathered at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance war memorial for the annual commemoration of Australian and New Zealand troops landing at Gallipoli in 1915. Anzac Day is a public holiday across Australia and New Zealand in honour of their war dead.
The solemn mood of the Melbourne event was broken during an address being delivered by an Aboriginal elder when a group in the crowd began to jeer and heckle. Some began shouting for the Welcome to Country to be halted but the hecklers — identified by police
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Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
War of words erupts between Bob Katter and Terri Irwin as they clash over controversial croc culling bill
Veteran MP Bob Katter has launched an attack on Dr Terri Irwin after she criticised his party's bill to cull crocodile populations in Queensland. The Irwin matriarch was among 175 submissions made to the state government on the proposed legislation and described it as 'more dangerous than previous efforts'. 'It is such a lazy and sloppy attempt to recycle old draft legislation,' she said on behalf of Australia Zoo. She noted the bill referenced the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection which has not been referred to as that since 2017. 'The Introductory Speech and Explanatory Notes is very selective in its use of statistics and contains many inaccuracies and "fake news",' Dr Irwin continued. 'However, it is the new, poorly-designed parts of the Bill which make this proposed legislation even more dangerous than previous efforts.' Katter's Australian Party (KAP) introduced the Crocodile Control and Conservation Bill 2025 in February to 'eliminate crocodiles which pose a threat to human life' while protecting them from going extinct. In response to Dr Irwin's 21-page submission, the party founder took to his Facebook page on Friday to attack her credentials. 'A lady, Mrs Irwin. She said that I'm a dangerous person, and it's the only time I've ever agreed with her in my life,' Katter said to the camera. 'She knows all about crocodiles. Well, that's rather fascinating for me because she lives in Brisbane, and I work with the top crocodile handlers in the world. 'Versace and the other big fashion houses have huge crocodile farms here. 'How would you know all about crocodiles if you live in Brisbane? Oh that's right, she's got them all locked up in a cage in Brisbane.' KAP MP for Hill Shane Knuth, who submitted the bill, joined the pile-on. 'The Irwin's built a multimillion dollar business off the back of crocodiles,' he wrote on Facebook. 'And now they're lecturing North Queenslanders on how to enjoy our recreational waterways while they're infested with crocs - and getting worse. 'Spare us the patronising 'Crocwise' slogans. We don't need a zoo telling us how to survive in our own backyard.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Dr Irwin and Australia Zoo for comment. Australia Zoo is not the only organisation to oppose the proposed legislation, with PETA Australia raising two concerns in its own submission. 'We highlight crocodiles' sentience and individuality and refute that they are 'pest' animals who must be eradicated so humans can occupy their natural habitats,' it said. The group secondly opposed the Bill's proposed 'payment from a quota of 'High-End Clients' who wish to live harvest the crocodile'. It suggested the detail 'hints at allowing safari-style hunting of crocodiles'. Hartley's Creek Crocodile Farming Company also opposed the bill, suggesting that it would 'destroy the export industry'. A public hearing and briefing on the proposed legislation is due to be held in Brisbane on June 11.


The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Australian universities urge Albanese to join New Zealand in $170bn Europe fund amid Trump attacks on education
Australian universities are urging the Albanese government to join New Zealand in a $170bn Europe research fund amid US president Donald Trump's sweeping crackdown on higher education and international students. Universities Australia's executive officer, Luke Sheehy, travelled to Brussels this week to meet representatives from the European Commission and the Australian ambassador, Angus Campbell, to discuss the possibility of joining Horizon Europe. The seven-year scientific collaborative research fund, with a budget of €95.5bn ($168bn), has 20 non-European partners – including New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada – but the Australian government has so far been reluctant to join. Industry insiders have attributed the government's reluctance to potential costs. New Zealand will pay €19m ($33m) over five years to be part of the program. The EU is drawing up strategies for the next seven-year funding cycle, due to begin in 2028, with a proposal expected to be announced mid-year. About €36bn ($63bn) is still available to the end of 2027. In comparison, Australia's total annual spend on research across all sectors is less than $40bn. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Sheehy said in a rapidly changing global environment, association with the body would give Australian researchers access to a mega-fund and support international collaboration on key sectors, including health and the environment. 'Growing geopolitical uncertainties are threatening to reshape our existing research alliances and we must adapt to remain ahead of the game,' he said. 'If we're serious about building a prosperous and productive economy, we need a seat at the table, particularly in a changing and more complex global environment.' The trade minister, Don Farrell, is in Paris this week restarting negotiations on a trade deal with the EU. Sheehy 'strongly encourage[d]' him to make Australia's involvement in Horizon Europe a focus of conversations. 'There is a strong appetite in Europe to have Australia come on board,' Sheehy said. 'This would remove the biggest roadblock for Australian researchers and scientists working with their European and other counterparts around the world. It's mutually beneficial. 'For what is a relatively modest investment, our best and brightest would gain access to billions of dollars in potential funding to take their work to the next level.' The higher eduction sector has closely focussed on Horizon Europe since the Trump administration was accused of possible 'foreign interference' in Australia's universities in March, pausing funding for programs at more than six universities. Researchers who receive US funding were sent a questionnaire asking them to confirm they aligned with US government interests and promoted administration priorities – including avoiding 'DEI, woke gender ideology and the green new deal'. Australia's Group of Eight CEO, Vicki Thomson, wrote to then-industry minister, Ed Husic, earlier this year on behalf of its member universities and the European Australian Business Council (EABC) CEO, Jason Collins, urging Australia to associate with the research fund. It has prepared a brief for the ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, at his request. Thomson, also the EABC deputy chair, has lobbied the government to join Horizon Europe for more than a decade. She will be meeting with stakeholders for negotiations in the next fortnight as part of an EABC delegation to Europe. Thomson said association with Horizon Europe was 'critical' to boosting productivity and providing essential buffers against negative global trends. 'Like trade, changes to the global research funding environment are also sending shocks around the world,' she said. 'The US is withdrawing from international research collaboration through the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies as well as defunding research in diversity, equity and inclusion. 'In the face of this, it is imperative that Australia maintains and extends international research collaboration through formal association with Horizon Europe.' The Australian Academy of Science president, Prof Chennupati Jagadish AC, also wants Australia to join the lucrative research fund, pointing to a possible research vacuum in the face of an increasingly unstable US. In April, the body announced a new global talent attraction program to capitalise on academics disfranchised by the Trump administration's research cuts. Americans represent 40% of collaborators in Australian physical sciences publications – including observational systems relied on for cyclone tracking capability and onshore mRNA vaccine manufacturing. Jagadish said the government must 'immediately act to diversify risk' by expanding international research collaborations, focusing on Horizon Europe. The industry minister, Madeleine King, was approached for comment.


The Guardian
15 hours ago
- The Guardian
China has a stranglehold on the world's rare-earths supply chain. Can Australia break it?
Weeks after China retaliated against Donald Trump's tariffs by suspending exports of a range of rare-earth elements and related high-powered magnets, Ford was forced to pause a production line in Chicago. Days later, executives from other major carmakers, including General Motors and Toyota, told the White House their suppliers faced an impending shortage of necessary materials that could shut assembly lines. The speed of the fallout shows just how reliant the world has become on China's mineral supply chain and its production of rare-earth magnets , used in everything from wind turbines and medical devices to combustion and electric motors, and ballistic missile guidance systems. The Albanese government believes it can help break China's dominance, but experts say the challenge is enormous. Prof John Mavrogenes, from the Australian National University's research school of earth sciences, says the government needs to dramatically boost its investment in skills, education and technology if it wants to develop the domestic capability to manufacture rare-earth products, namely magnets. 'The question over who can deal with the processing and the making of magnets is a really big one, and quite hard to get your head around because we've let China just take that business over,' says Mavrogenes. 'The question is capability. Who's ready to ramp up if we need to? One country that I know isn't ready is Australia. 'We need so many metallurgists and chemical engineers, and we need them tomorrow. We probably need 10, 20, 50 times more than we're producing.' China is a large producer of rare earths and has near-complete control over the refining processes needed to make the minerals useful. It produces about 90% of rare-earth magnets, completing its control of the supply chain. It has become a very efficient, cost-effective provider of rare-earth materials, although given some of the historical environmental damage caused by their extraction and processing, it has paid a price. Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Economies around the world have benefited from China's rare earths industry. The system seemed to work, until it didn't. In 2010, China starved Japan's hi-tech manufacturing industries by halting shipments of rare earths for about two months, after a dispute over a detained Chinese fishing trawler captain. In late 2023, China formalised a ban on the export of rare-earth separation technologies. Two months ago, China placed export restrictions on seven strategically chosen rare earths and the end product, magnets. While the recent curbs were sparked by Trump's tariffs, Beijing applied the export controls to all countries. It has implemented a new export permit system, choking the world of supply. Rare-earth magnets need a lot of two light rare-earth elements, neodymium and praseodymium, which are not subject to China's export curbs. But more powerful, heat-resistant magnets used in automotive and defence industries tend to require dysprosium or terbium, which are called heavy rare earths because of their atomic weights. Dysprosium and terbium are on China's list of suspended rare earths, as is samarium, which is also used in hi-tech applications. Until recently, the desire to develop a rare earths sector has been pitched by governments as a means to fuel the transition to clean energy technology and electric vehicles. Sign up to Five Great Reads Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning after newsletter promotion But now, it's also taken on the pressing aim of shoring up supplies of materials required for national interests, including defence. Australia, rich in resources, is seen as a natural competitor to China that could break into its rare-earths supply chain. The Albanese government has openly discussed this desire for well over two years, and officials have crisscrossed the country, from Dubbo in New South Wales to Western Australia and Northern Territory, offering grants, funding and other assistance in order to develop bona fide domestic processing capabilities. Notably, the government has backed the development of Iluka's Eneabba project in WA, which is designed to come online in 2027 and produce several rare-earth oxides, including dysprosium and terbium. Iluka's chief executive, Tom O'Leary, told shareholders last month the 'current industry is unsustainable, owing to China's monopoly position and approach'. 'It is a fact that rare earths are among very few metals where China has demonstrated a preparedness to withhold supply to achieve political or strategic objectives,' O'Leary said. Another Australian company, Lynas, is a step ahead, given it has some rare-earths processing capabilities out of Kalgoorlie. It relies on further refining at its factory in Malaysia, which recently became the first to separate heavy rare-earth elements, primarily dysprosium and terbium, outside China. The Labor government has also proposed setting up a strategic stockpile of critical minerals. While the details of this plan are scant, such a stockpile, by building up supplies, could provide pricing certainty for projects affected by the current monopoly market. The government's various funding announcements show that Australia is focusing on the initial extraction and refining of rare earths, but not on the process of turning that material into metals and, in turn, manufacturing magnets. There are mixed views on whether that is the right approach, given the strategy falls short of developing an end-to-end rare-earths supply chain in Australia, independent of China, as some had hoped for. There has also been limited discussion of the potential for magnet recycling in Australia. Rowena Smith, the chief executive of Australian Strategic Materials, says it is more realistic for Australia to partner with overseas magnet producers outside China than to quickly develop capabilities to produce magnets. 'The opportunity for Australia is to play to our strengths upstream and integrate with allied partners into those emerging magnet manufacturers,' says Smith. 'It would be ambitious to get this supply chain up rapidly in Australia, because you need every piece of the supply chain to come online simultaneously.'