Australia to repatriate passengers from Hantavirus-hit cruise ship

May 11, 2026 9:19 AM

Australia to repatriate passengers from Hantavirus-hit cruise ship

The Australian government said on Monday it would repatriate its citizens from a Dutch-flagged luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly strain of hantavirus, with the passengers to be quarantined after they arrive in the country. Spain and France have evacuated their citizens from the MV Hondius, which has anchored near Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, officials said, with flights to Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the UK, Ireland, and the United States slated to have left by Sunday nigh...

Australia to charge Big Tech companies 2% levy unless they strike local news deals

April 28, 2026 11:53 AM

Australia to charge Big Tech companies 2% levy unless they strike local news deals

The Australian government said on Tuesday that Meta, Alphabet's Google and TikTok could face multimillion-dollar charges if they did not negotiate deals to pay local media outlets for news on their platforms. A proposed News Bargaining Incentive would tax the three big tech companies 2.25% on their local revenues unless they struck agreements, with the proceeds to be directed to news companies to boost Australian journalism. "People are increasingly getting their news directly from Facebook, f...

Australia govt demands 50-50 gender split on sporting body boards by 2027

September 10, 2024 12:22 PM

Australia govt demands 50-50 gender split on sporting body boards by 2027

The Australian government introduced a new directive on Tuesday ordering national and state sporting bodies to have a 50-50 gender split on their boards by mid-2027 or risk losing public funding. The National Gender Equity in Sport Governance Policy also demands that half of board chairs and half of board sub-committees are women by July 1, 2027. "Despite almost equal sport participation rates between men and women, women are still underrepresented in governance and leadership positions across...