State politics

The Parliamentary Committee into the State’s algal bloom crisis has been unable to reach a consensus, with Labor members blocking the Committee including its findings in the formal report. The Committee was forced to publish multiple dissenting reports, from the Liberal team and Committee Chair, Greens MLC Rob Simms.

The last remaining tugboat that was used on the Clarence River for the sugar industry, the MV Beardmore is being considered for heritage listing, and the community have an opportunity to have their say. Built by JG Pashley and Sons in 1914 at the Harwood Mill, the 18.8 metre long and 3.4 metre wide MV Beardmore was made from local hardwood.

The Victorian Minister for Planning, the Hon. Sonya Kilkenny MP, has decided that an environmental effect statement is required for the Fingerboards Critical Minerals Project and given reasons for her decision. Gippsland Critical Minerals Pty Ltd, the proponent of the Fingerboards Project, has responded to the decision. The community action group, Mine Free Glenaladale, has responded to the decision and GCM's statement.

More than a quarter of a century's worth of volunteer work to restore the timber trestle bridges on the old Cudgewa-Wodonga railway line was gone in a flash when the Walwa-Mt Lawson bushfire laid waste to the structures last month. A strong wind change pushed the out-of-control bushfire towards the bridges near Shelley, Koetong and the Tallangatta Valley on January 8th and within 24 hours, 15 of the 16 bridges had been destroyed.

At just 15 years old, Ray Neville stunned the racing world with a Melbourne Cup victory. Now, nearly eight decades later, his hometown of Birchip is ensuring that remarkable moment in sporting history will be remembered, with work under way on a silo mural in his honour.

... Sussan Ley is taking her bat and ball and going home. The tenure of Ms Ley has been marred by Farrer communities being devastated by the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, a plan that her party was the ultimate architect of.

Member for Murray Helen Dalton said 25 dead Murray Cod were left stranded in a remnant pool barely 60 metres long in Bullatale Creek. "Some were close to a metre in length - fish that would have taken decades to grow now gone," she said ... "So here is the question. What exactly is that two billion dollars a year being spent on?

Barkindji representatives travelled to the United Kingdom to share the Menindee fish kills film with international audiences and connect with cultural items. In the summer of 2018-2019, a million dead fish floated to the surface of the Baaka (Darling River) near the town of Menindee. The shocking sight was the result of a mass fish kill.

The Finocchiaro CLP Government is further boosting economic growth in the Territory through a new acreage release for onshore petroleum exploration. The acreage is approximately 4,000 sqkm, more than five times the size of Singapore, and is strategically located near the Amadeus Gas Pipeline and the Stuart Highway within the highly prospective Beetaloo Sub-basin, one of Australia’s most significant onshore shale gas plays.

Madison Eastmond. The crushing economic pressure of the wine industry has forced a Riverland family to dump their grapes – and prompted a Chaffey election candidate to pledge advocating for locals outside "the top end of town" ... "Where are our (local politicians)?," Mr Koutouzis asked.

Member for Farrer for the past 25 years, Sussan Ley has announced her exit from politics with grace and dignity after losing to Angus Taylor in a Liberal Party leadership spill 34-17 on Friday ... "I will be spending the next couple of weeks thanking the amazing people of Farrer, and expressing my gratitude to them, for the honour of representing them for 25 years."

A new advisory committee has been established to support the reopening of boat-based recreational demersal fishing from Kalbarri to Augusta in Spring 2027. The West Coast Demersal Ministerial Advisory Committee will provide recommendations to the State Government on the future management of recreational fishing to balance a return to boat-based fishing with continued protection for fish stocks to support recovery.

Long-term planning to ensure a sustainable future for the West Coast Wilderness Railway has taken its next steps. The Tasmanian Government has convened a roundtable with key industry and business stakeholders to discuss next steps for the Railway.

Annabelle Cleeland has criticised the Allan Labor Government’s so-called “Big Switch”, saying it has failed to deliver for regional Victoria, with overcrowded, unreliable services on the Shepparton and Albury–Seymour lines while Melbourne continues to receive the lion’s share of upgrades.

Tasmania’s visitor economy has been given a significant boost, with a record number of travellers passing through Launceston Airport on a single day last month. The airport saw 6880 people passing through its gates on 23 January, the eve of the Foo Fighters concert in Launceston.

Some of Victoria’s top drops are headed to the world’s largest wine museum, further cementing our international reputation. Minister Pearson today revealed seven Victorian wineries will be featured at the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, which welcomes more than 400,000 wine lovers a year.

A sod turning ceremony held on Friday marked the beginning of the Bendigo Art Gallery redevelopment, which will be delivered by local company Fairbrother Construction. The project is expected to create an additional 260 jobs in the local construction sector and an additional 170 jobs in the local economy when the Gallery reopens in 2028.

The Opposition is calling for the Cook Government to release the results of the investigation in response to the wrong-way collision near the Mitchell Fwy and Romeo Rd off-ramp in October last year as well as any action taken. A second wrong-way collision on February 8, not far away from where the first head-on happened, resulted in the deaths of two people.

The Farrer by-election, triggered by the resignation of former Liberal leader Sussan Ley in February 2026, is shaping up to be a highly contested race. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has weighed in, commenting on what he described as the "chaos" within the Liberal Party... Speaking at the NSW Labor Country Conference in Orange on Saturday (February 14, 2026), the Prime Minister took a jab at the new Liberal leadership.

Raising the matter in Parliament, Mrs McArthur said the significant public artwork, commissioned by the State of Victoria in 1977, had been rendered inaccessible to the public without justification ... Harold Freedman’s Geelong Regional History mosaic mural “is a heritage-listed public artwork depicting the changing lifestyle of the region’s people and key moments in Victoria’s early history.”