Canberra:

Australia is planning to ban foreigners from buying established houses for the next two years. The move is part of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese-led government’s election pitch to tackle surging home prices. The move is likely to affect a large number of Indians who go to Australia for their higher education and later settle there. 

Australia’s Housing Minister Clare O’Neil announced that from April 1, foreign investors will be banned from buying established property until March 31, 2027.

After the deadline, the restriction will be reviewed to determine whether it should be extended, she noted, adding that the tax office will be given extra funding to help enforce the ban.

Housing Crisis In Australia

Australia’s housing is some of the most unaffordable in the world. With elections in Australia set to be held later this year, soaring property prices are likely to be the key issue amid a broader cost-of-living crisis, especially among young voters who fear they’ll never be able to buy a home. Rents have also been climbing in the country in recent years.

In Sydney, housing values have jumped almost 70 per cent over the past 10 years, with the median dwelling price now around A$1.2 million ($762,000), Bloomberg reported quoting property consultancy CoreLogic Inc.

Per figures issued by the Australian Taxation Office, overseas investors bought A$4.9 billion of residential real estate – including vacant land, and new and established dwellings – in the 12 months ended June 30, 2023.

Who Will Be Affected

Under the new rule, foreign investors, including temporary residents such as international students and overseas companies, will be restricted from buying established residential properties during the two-year period. 

However, they will still be able to purchase new dwellings to encourage housing supply and a carve-out will also be provided for workers on a Pacific visa scheme.

Additionally, the government is also planning to curb land banking by foreign investors, requiring them to develop vacant land within a set timeframe. 

Australia has been a preferred choice for Indian students aiming to pursue top-notch education and bright career prospects overseas. In 2023-24, India remained the leading source country for immigrants to Australia.

Labor Replicates Coalition Policy

The Labor government’s move to ban foreign purchases of established houses matches a pledge by opposition leader Peter Dutton made last year. An election must be held by May 17, and polls show it will be a close fight, with cost-of-living concerns and housing among the top three issues.
 

A woman in Australia who lost over a million in an elaborate scam eerily came face to face with one of the criminals while she was vacationing in China with her husband. The woman, who did not want to reveal her identity, runs a Chinese immigration and education business. Speaking to news.com.au, she said that she was distraught after learning that scammers had kept her on the hook for nearly a year through a fake online trading platform, before finally serving ties with her after draining her bank account. 

It all started when the woman received a text message from a man called Wei Chen, asking her how she was. At first, she asked the man who he was, however, she didn’t find the message alarming or strange as she runs a Chinese immigration and education business. “I thought my friends or clients introduced him to me,” she told the outlet.

Later, the two ended up getting on well. They messaged each other over WeChat and WhatsApp about food and how they had both moved to Australia. Chen told her that he was a permanent resident who ran a furniture store and he lived in the expensive Sydney suburb in a house worth over $12,000,000. 

Eventually, Chen mentioned that he staked his fortune on an investment trading website called SpreadEx. Notably, a legitimate company exists by that name in the UK as a sports betting and financial trading company, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Chen convinced the woman to put some money in. She had $191,215.50 in savings and over a period of time put all that in, and then some more. The woman also revealed that she encouraged her friends to invest in the scheme and also borrowed money from them. 

Unfortunately, the company she was dealing with was actually run by a group of scammers. In December last year – six months after the woman had invested – the UK financial watchdog put out a warning, flagging that the scammers were using an extra ‘s’, using the domain spreadexs.com instead of spreadx.com. The Australian government also put out a warning about the fraudulent site.

The woman had already invested all her savings on the platform. She even borrowed a further $286,823.25 from friends and redrew the mortgage she shared with her husband. Some of her school friends also invested as well after she encouraged them.

The woman told the outlet that when she went on a vacation to China she wanted to continue investing on the platform. This is when the scammers told her that she could directly hand over the cash to them while she was in mainland China. She met a man in what she described as a “remote dark place” and handed him over 500,000 yuan in cash. 

Also Read | Watch: Author Aija Mayrock Shares Unique Experience Of “Renting” Old Man In Japan

While overseas, the woman also left her SpreadEx trading account in the hands of Chen, who at this point she considered a mentor. But when she returned, she tried withdrawing some of her money but her trading account was suddenly suspended. 

The scammers then told her she had to pay a risk fee for withdrawing cash. They also charged her a penalty because she had let someone else take over her account. 

The woman said the last contact she had with Chen was in April, meaning he kept the ruse going for nearly a year. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact him, Roxy and her husband concluded it was a scam and alerted police in September this year.

The woman said she still owes money she took from her friends and the mortgage. Victoria police is still investigating the woman’s case. 

Sydney:

Four people including a police officer were injured in a stabbing attack in Sydney early on Sunday, police said, the latest in a series of knife assaults in Australia’s biggest city this year.

A man who ran from the scene has been taken into custody, police said in a statement. There is no ongoing threat to people in Sydney, said New South Wales state Police Minister Yasmin Catley.

Police said no one was killed in the attack, which came after a “domestic-related” incident in a car that collided with another vehicle in the southern suburb of Engadine.

The attacker “was armed with what we believe to be a boxcutter,” police superintendent Donald Faulds said in a televised press conference.

Aerial footage of the scene by the Australian Broadcasting Corp showed two crashed cars cordoned off with police tape.

Sydney, a city of 5 million, has seen a spate of knife attacks this year, prompting the New South Wales government to toughen its knife laws. The state parliament passed laws in June giving police electronic metal-detecting scanners to check people without a warrant at shopping centres, sporting venues and public transport stations.

In April, six people were killed and 12 injured in a knife attack at a mall in Sydney’s Bondi area.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Sydney:

Australian authorities have accused a Sydney father of trying to stop rescuers from saving his own family in a “horrifying” home fire that killed two boys and a baby girl.

Flames engulfed the home in western Sydney’s Lalor Park in the early hours of Sunday morning while the 28-year-old man, his female partner and seven children were inside, New South Wales state police said.

Three children — two boys aged three and six, and a 10-month-old girl — were killed.

The four other children aged between four and 11 and their mother, 29, were being treated at hospital for fire-related injuries but were all expected to recover, police said.

“This is a horrifying and senseless act that has quite rightly outraged the entire state,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said Monday.

“These children deserved a loving home with safety and security, and instead they are gone.”

Police said the three deaths were being investigated as a domestic-related multiple homicide.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described domestic violence in Australia as a “national crisis” following a spike in the number of violent deaths of women this year and a series of high-profile attacks.

State police said the 28-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly “frustrated” police efforts to enter the burning building.

He was in an induced coma while being treated in hospital, under police guard, they said.

“It does appear that the 28-year-old man is responsible for multiple deaths,” state homicide squad commander Danny Doherty told reporters on Sunday.

The suspect allegedly acted with “the intention of keeping the kids inside the premises whilst the fire was happening,” he said.

 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A Sydney council has voted to ban same-sex parenting books from local libraries, sparking discrimination and censorship concerns. According to The Guardian, at a meeting last week, the Cumberland City Council in western Sydney voted on a new plan for its eight libraries. The amendment, put forward by the former mayor and current councillor Steve Christou, proposed that the council take immediate action to remove same-sex parenting books and materials from its library services. He cited public complaints about the book to push for their removal. 

During the meeting, Mr Christou displayed a book titled ‘Same-Sex Parents’ by Holly Duhig and claimed that it had distressed parents due to its placement in the children’s section of the library. “We’re going to make it clear tonight that … these kind of books, same-sex parents books, don’t find their way to our kids,” he said,” as per The Guardian. 

“Our kids shouldn’t be sexualised.. This community is a very religious community, a very family-orientated community. They don’t want such controversial issues going against their beliefs indoctrinated to their libraries. This is not Marrickville or Newtown, this is Cumberland city council,” Mr Christou continued. 

The former mayor added that toddlers shouldn’t be “exposed” to same-sex content and that the proposed amendment was “for the protection and safety of our children”.”Hands off our kids,” he repeated. 

The council’s decision to ban same-sex parenting books has prompted discussions about representing diverse families in library collections. The New South Wales government has warned that the move could be a breach of the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act. Cumberland mayor Lisa Lake said she was “appalled” and “saddened” by the move. She noted that the content of the book, as with others in the series, was “age appropriate” and did not include any sexual content.

“I think it’s a serious issue about censorship,” she said, as per The Independent. “It’s important that information is available to anyone who wants to look at that information,” she added. 

Also read | Video: Fight Breaks Out Mid-Flight On Eva Air After Passenger Attempts To Steal Seat

Auburn MP Lynda Voltz has asked the NSW arts minister, John Graham, to look at the matter. “I am greatly concerned at the decision of Cumberland council and believe that it may possibly risk breaching the guidelines for funding of libraries and may also be in breach of the Anti-Discrimination Act,” she said, as per The Guardian.

“The overwhelming majority of the people in Auburn will tell you that everyone is welcome and we pride ourselves on being a peaceful and friendly community,” she added. 

Separately, speaking on the matter, John Graham emphasised that it should be up to readers to choose which books they pick from the shelves. “When civilisations turn to book burning books or banning books it is a very bad sign. That is equally true for local councils,” he said. 

“We are examining the consequences this decision may have for the council continuing to receive library funding from the NSW government,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Christou clarified that the move was not targeted at the LGBTQ+ community but towards any books that promoted “sexualising”. 

Sydney:

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the country’s first openly gay female parliamentarian, has married her partner Sophie Allouache, Wong said on Sunday.

“We are delighted that so many of our family and friends could share this special day with us,” Wong said on social media platform Instagram, alongside a photo of her and Allouache in wedding attire and holding a bouquet of flowers.

Wong and Allouache have been together for nearly two decades and tied the knot on Saturday at a winery in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Wong represents the state of South Australia in the senate.

A Labor senator since 2002, Wong is the first Asian-born person to hold an Australian cabinet position.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Australia in 2017, a watershed for a country where homosexuality was not decriminalised in all states until 1997.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A passenger ferry arrives at a wharf in Watsons Bay as a thick a blanket of smoke hangs over parts of the Sydney following New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) hazard reduction burns in the past week, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Sydney was blanketed under thick wood smoke for a fourth consecutive day on Thursday due to hazard reduction burns in preparation for the wildfire season.

Australia’s most populous city after Melbourne has recorded some of the world’s worst air quality readings since the controlled burning of fuel loads in the surrounding landscapes began on Sunday.

Fire authorities have only carried out 14% of planned hazard reduction burns across New South Wales state as of this week and are attempting to catch up before what is forecast to be a hot and dry Southern Hemisphere summer.

New South Wales Rural Fire Service Inspector Ben Shepherd said the burns were suspended on Thursday and Friday because of excessive pollution levels and that Sydney’s air was expected to clear soon.

“It’s mostly due to the smoke,” Mr. Shepherd said of the postponements.

“For the next 48 hours, we’ll give this smoke a chance to clear without fire agencies adding additional smoke to it,” Mr. Shepherd added.

Rain had prevented burning last week and an increased fire danger due to rising temperatures and windy conditions was expected to prevent burning late next week.

The coming wildfire season across southeast Australia is expected to be the most destructive since the catastrophic Black Summer wildfires of 2019-20.

The fires killed at least 33 people including 10 firefighters, destroyed more than 3,000 hones, razed 19 million hectares (47 million acres) and displaced thousands of residents.

Medical authorities estimated more than 400 people were killed by the smoke, which enveloped major cities.

Since then, three successive La Lina weather events have brought unusually wet and mild summers.

The rain has also created larger fuel loads and frustrated authorities’ hazard reduction plans. Only a quarter of the hazard reduction target was achieved through controlled burning across New South Wales last fiscal year.