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News.com.au
35 minutes ago
- News.com.au
$1.31m sale for renovated Boronia family home
A Boronia home has rocketed $280,000 above its price guide, selling for $1.31m as seven bidders battled it out in a heated auction for one of the suburb's best-finished family homes. The five-bedroom, three-bathroom property at 11 Ronald Cres, had $940,000-$1.03m price hopes ahead of the onsite auction. Eight bidders registered, seven competed in the auction. Ray White Ferntree Gully's Blayze Fatchen said buyers were quick to recognise the home's move in ready appeal. 'There was heat from the start,' Mr Fatchen said. 'We had hands flying early, families just want to move in and enjoy it. 'No one wants to deal with trades anymore.' Bidding opened strongly and surged past the quoted range. Mr Fatchen said the home was declared on the market above $1.1m, with three buyers pushing well beyond that mark. 'You could feel the urgency,' Mr Fatchen said. 'If it's finished and done to a high standard, buyers will come from everywhere for it.' Sellers Kristy and Damian Duke said the result was more than they'd hoped for. 'We're absolutely stoked. It's more than what we dreamt of,' Mrs Duke said. The couple lived in the home with their three children, Imogen, Ethan and Elijah, and have already purchased a new property in Selby. 'We've bought on half an acre so the kids can have more space,' she said. 'We bought first, which was stressful, but Blayze talked us through everything. We felt prepared.' The home sits on a 728sq m block and has been renovated and extended. Features include a stone-topped kitchen, electric fireplace, three bathrooms, and a covered alfresco with Coonara wood heater. There's also a double garage with auto gate, solar panels, and CCTV. Mr Fatchen said demand for move-in-ready homes in Boronia had surged. 'This is what's driving premium results in the outer east,' he said. 'People are done with the reno dream, they want lifestyle, now.'
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Court finds no duty of care owed to Torres Strait Islanders over climate change
The Federal Court has found the Commonwealth does not owe a duty of care to Torres Strait Islander peoples to protect them from the impacts of climate change or fund adaptation measures. Judge Michael Wigney ruled Australia's greenhouse gas emissions targets are matters of "core government policy" which should be decided by the parliament, not the courts. "My heart is broken for my families and my community," Guda Maluyligal traditional owner Uncle Pabai Pabai said after the decision was handed down. The judge also rejected the Torres Strait Islanders' claims that their cultural loss should be compensated under negligence law. Uncle Paul Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai — from the islands of Saibai and Boigu — brought the case and travelled almost 900 kilometres from their ancestral homes to the Federal Court in Cairns to hear the outcome. Despite the finding, the judge also said the Uncles had proven many of the factual elements of their case, including that Australia's emissions targets between 2015 and 2021 were not consistent with the best available science to hold global temperatures to 1.5 degrees. He found the Commonwealth "did not engage with or give real or genuine consideration to the best available science" when setting those targets. The judge said the Torres Strait Islander peoples' case did not fail because there was no merit in their allegations, but rather because negligence law does not allow compensation for matters of government policy. Supporters wearing colourful dresses gathered in a separate room in the courthouse to watch the judgement, singing songs from their homeland, and waving Torres Strait Islander flags. Judge Wigney acknowledged the Torres Strait Islands "have in recent years been ravaged by the impacts of human-induced climate change … rising sea levels, storm surges and other extreme water level events". "The Torres Strait Islands and their inhabitants are, however, undoubtedly far more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than other communities in Australia," he said. "There could be little, if any, doubt that the Torres Strait Islands and their traditional inhabitants will face a bleak future if urgent action is not taken to address climate change and its impacts." This is the first time an Australian court has ruled on whether the Commonwealth has a legal duty of care to protect their citizens from the impacts of climate change, and whether cultural loss from climate change should be compensated. The landmark litigation has been financed through the NGO the Grata Fund, and modelled on a successful case from the Netherlands. As part of the case the Federal Court visited the islands of Boigu and Saibai, about 6 kilometres from the shores of Papua New Guinea, and Badu. Evidence of coastal erosion, destruction of ancestral graves and soil salinity that prevents crops from growing was presented to the court. It also heard of extreme weather events, including storms that cause intense flooding and inundate the islands, which lie at just 1.6 metres above sea level. The court heard sea levels in the Torres Strait were rising at double the rate of the rest of the world and that inaction on climate change may cause irreversible impacts for First Nations people in the Torres Strait. The plantiffs' legal team argued the Guda Maluyligal people risked losing their culture if rising sea levels, caused by climate change, forced them to leave their homes. The court heard breaching the 1.5 degrees global emissions limit would cause irreversible damage to small and low-lying islands, including those in the Torres Strait. Judge Wigney said today's findings "should not be construed as somehow sanctioning or justifying being the unquestionably modest and unambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets that were set by the Commonwealth in 2015, 2020 and 2021". "Unless something is done to arrest global warming and the resulting escalating impacts of climate change, there is a very real risk that the applicant's worst fears will be realised and they will lose their islands, their culture and their way of life, and will become, as it were, climate refugees," he said. This is not the first time Torres Strait Islanders have taken the federal government to court over their long connection to Country. The decade-long Mabo case led by Meriam man Eddie Koiki Mabo dispelled the legal notion of terra nullius — land belonging to no-one and recognised the land of his people. It also led to the development of the Native Title Act.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Mark Latham denies ex-partner's allegations of domestic abuse and 'degrading' sex acts
New South Wales MP Mark Latham has emphatically denied a former partner's allegations of a "sustained pattern" of domestic abuse and pressuring her to engage in "degrading sex acts". The allegations are detailed by Nathalie Matthews in an apprehended violence order (AVO) application filed in a NSW local court against the former leader of both federal Labor and NSW One Nation, first reported by The Australian newspaper this week. The matter, which does not involve criminal charges, will be heard in the Downing Centre Local Court on July 30. The Australian reports Ms Matthews has accused Mr Latham, in court documents, of pressuring her to participate in "degrading sexual acts", throwing dinner plates at her and driving his car at her. She is seeking orders preventing him from coming with 100 metres of her, The Australian reported. Mr Latham has labelled the allegations as "comically false and ridiculous" in a post on his X social media account. "As the old saying goes, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," the post said. "The story says that Ms Matthews went to the police and they did not do anything. They certainly haven't contacted me. In the current environment, that says a lot. "She told me in April she had been to police seeking an AVO against another man and they complained that they did nothing." NSW Police did not lodge the AVO on behalf of Ms Matthews. Mr Latham said he had "scores of documents" that he would rely upon to defend himself against the accusations. Mr Latham is an independent member in the NSW Upper House and Ms Matthews is the managing director of a logistics company and previous Liberal candidate for Sutherland Shire Council. The leader of the government in the Upper House, Penny Sharpe, said the allegations against Mr Latham were "very disturbing and frankly disgusting", while cautioning that they remained simply allegations. Ms Sharpe said when parliament resumes, she would move a motion to refer Mr Latham to the privileges committee for allegedly "disclosing authorised information" after he used parliamentary privilege to reveal confidential information from a psychologist's report prepared for NCAT in proceedings brought by MP Alex Greenwich. She said the government had previously been calling out Mr Latham "on a whole range of different things". "I do not want to get ahead of the current allegations as revolting as they are," she said. While cautioning that the current allegations are before the courts, Ms Sharpe said on Tuesday that the Liberals and Greens should reconsider working closely with Mr Latham in the Upper House. The allegations are the latest in a series of controversies involving Mr Latham. Mr Latham was last year ordered to pay $140,000 in a defamation suit after making graphic, homophobic comments in a tweet about Independent MP Alex Greenwich. Separate vilification proceedings relating to the same tweet is ongoing in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT). In June, Mr Latham used parliamentary privilege to reveal confidential information from a psychologist's report about Mr Greenwich that was prepared for NCAT. Later that week, NSW Premier Chris Minns labelled Mr Latham "one of Australia's biggest bigots", citing his comments about Mr Greenwich and on domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty. In a podcast interview in 2016, Mr Latham accused Ms Batty — who was at the time Australian of the Year — of "demonising men" making those who hit women "feel worse about themselves".
