Latest news with #Austral
1News
22-07-2025
- Business
- 1News
Fonterra boss quizzed as concern over price of butter spreads
The cost of butter was front and centre at Parliament today as the head of Fonterra faced questions over the soaring cost of dairy. Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell had several meetings with various political parties on Tuesday, including National, ACT, and Labour. It included a sit-down conversation with Finance Minister Nicola Willis who was keen to probe the dairy boss about the cost of butter to consumers. The price of butter has skyrocketed by more than 60% in the last year, currently sitting between $8 and $11 for a 500g block. 1News Political Editor Maiki Sherman grilled the Fonterra chief executive, who earns just under $6 million a year in salary, as he exited one of his meetings at Parliament. ADVERTISEMENT Having asked to stop and talk for an interview, Hurrell replied he was on his way to another meeting. Asked what he would say to New Zealanders who thought butter prices were too high, he said: 'Let me talk to Minister Willis today, later this afternoon." He was then asked whether $8 for a block of butter was too much. "Let me talk to Minister Willis," Hurrell reiterated. The issue has raised eyebrows amongst the public who have been dismayed at the cost of butter in local supermarkets. One man in Auckland told 1News, 'You see everything is going up, look at the butter prices and everywhere.' Another woman said, 'Oh my God, butter, it's like double what it used to be.' Another consumer asked what was behind the increase. ADVERTISEMENT 'Butter, all the basics, why does it have to cost this much in New Zealand?' The issue also sparked a sharp interaction in Parliament's debating chamber today between the two major party leaders, Labour and National. 'How many blocks of butter can he buy for the $60 a week he claims to spend on groceries?' Opposition leader Chris Hipkins asked Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. "Well, it's a smart-arse answer isn't it? Ah, question," Luxon replied. The Finance Minister said the public wanted answers from the Fonterra boss. 'Well I think that Miles Hurrell has the opportunity to talk through what goes into the price of a block of butter and it's in his interests to do so," Willis said. But whether Willis could influence dairy prices in any meaningful way was also up for question. The Finance Minister previously worked as a manager at Fonterra before becoming an MP. ADVERTISEMENT 'As a Government, we recognise there are complex drivers behind that. We have to address a number of things, the overall inflation rate; competition between our supermarkets; the costs that go into a block of butter,' she said. Fonterra said the prices for its products were determined by the global dairy market, which was at a five-year high. However, the Finance Minister said she wanted to know more about the margins both Fonterra and supermarkets added on top in order to reach the end shelf price. "I'm interested in Fonterra's perspective about what the supermarket margins look like in New Zealand compared with say Australia or other countries," she said. When asked by 1News, what sort of margins Fonterra was asking for when it came to the price of butter, the chief executive refused to say. 'Let me talk to the minister this afternoon,' he continued. He did agree, however, that it was a big issue to Kiwi across the country at the moment. ADVERTISEMENT 'Yeah, of course it is,' he said.
News.com.au
21-07-2025
- News.com.au
Four injured as citizens pursue man through Sydney hardware store in wild chase
Dramatic footage has emerged of a wild chase through the streets of Western Sydney that began with a crash tackle in an attempted citizen's arrest, and involved a hacksaw, butcher's knife and an allegedly stolen hire truck, before ending in heavy morning traffic on the motorway. The ordeal began at a petrol station in Austral on Monday where CCTV captured two locals - dressed in black in the vision above - closely trailing a 51-year-old man dressed in blue. They're seen walking slowly until the man in blue approaches a corner and legs it away from the others. The two locals give chase and one of them manages to tackle the man in blue to the ground in the carpark of a nearby Mitre 10. He isn't able to restrain the man for long, however, and he is seen entering the hardware store. Inside, the man in blue allegedly used a hacksaw to injure two employees and one of the locals who had been pursing him from the start. According to 9News, the locals had been following the man as they suspected him of stealing from businesses in the area. One of the locals, who was allegedly sliced across his ear, is again seen on CCTV when he exits the Mitre 10 and is handed a large knife from the butcher shop at the other end of the carpark. The knife was not used however, as the 51-year-old used the intervening time to escape out the rear exit of the Mitre 10 and allegedly steal a hire truck. According to police, a third hardware store employee was crushed between two trucks when the vehicle was allegedly stolen. That employee was treated by paramedics and taken to Liverpool Hospital. Police were informed of the alleged theft and picked up the pursuit after officers sighted the truck at about 8.50am and followed it onto the M4 Motorway. The Mitre 10 truck was also fitted with a GPS tracker, making the man's movements easy to follow. In the end, heavy traffic proved to be the man's downfall and he was arrested and taken to Blacktown Police Station.
Scroll.in
18-07-2025
- Sport
- Scroll.in
A new book on India vs Australia cricket addresses racism and violent fan reactions
Out of the unprecedented actions of Mohammed Siraj in objecting to the behaviour of a group at the 2021 Sydney Test has emerged a discussion worth having about the rights and responsibilities of the modern live fan. Yet it is also almost impossible to generalise about them. Crowds are diverse; they are fickle; they are volatile. They do not merely observe the play; they observe one another, and unite or differ. They like to be noticed; they can also object to it. There is also in Australia an ancient tradition of raucous demotic demonstration, even in cricket, and especially at the Sydney Cricket Ground. It was the scene of our first riot in 1879. It was the scene, 50 years ago, of the first abandonment of a Test field due to a physical altercation with a player, England's John Snow. A hundred years ago, meanwhile, there was another incident in an Ashes Test which has long fascinated me – and which affords some parallels with l'affaire Siraj. An English amateur vice-captain, Rockley Wilson, wrote an article for London's Daily Express deploring the behaviour of a Sydney crowd towards his teammate Jack Hobbs, whom they had heckled for his slow movement in the field when he was publicly known to be suffering a leg strain. There might then have been no internet, but there was a lively trade in cables to Australia of sections of the Fleet Street press, and Wilson's comments were quickly played back to their subject. An account in Melbourne's Herald gives the flavour of the response when Wilson came out to bat. Everywhere else round the ground thoughts were forcibly expressed. 'Liar! Liar! Liar!' roared the spectators. The roar became louder and louder as Wilson neared the batting crease. 'What about your lying cable?' was called as Wilson went to the end at which the bowling began. When Wilson took strike… There was a long babel of noise – 'Why don't you play the game?' 'Hook him on the jaw, Warwick.' 'Hit him on the head, Gregory, and wake him up.' 'Never mind the wicket, Gregory, crack him.' This worked a charm. Wilson, clearly unsettled, smartly got outstumped, amid widespread schadenfreude. But then, as The Herald continued, something curious happened. Hobbs' name appeared on the scoring board… When he did appear, there was a scene never before approached on the Sydney Cricket Ground. People stood and cheered frantically, the clapping was tremendous, and all round the ground three cheers for Hobbs were called for, and spontaneously given… and continued long after. The members and the grandstand and the hill patrons were all in it. What was this? A tacit admission that Wilson had pricked their consciences? A desire to be seen as magnanimous in their own and English eyes? Illustrative of people's innate desire to join in with the prevailing sentiment? Different spectators that day would probably have given different answers. In those days, of course, we were most sensitive to English sensibilities, and also English condescension. Sport, like Australia, was a monoculture; it loomed large and reinforced the status quo. Times have changed, in some respects, our attitudes to crowds have not kept up with their growing complexity. What transpired during the Third Test involved a dark-skinned cricketer with a poor background in a rich team from a country both stunningly rich and terribly poor. The shame is that the incident immediately bogged down in a mindless literalism, led by the 'you-ca n't-say-anything-anymore' crowd who demanded a transcript featuring explicit racial epithets, otherwise it's all WOKE, FAKE NEWS etc. It is not a particularly deep reading of the scenario. For a start, the Indian objection is cumulative. It is due to the long-term boorishness of Sydney crowds. They were invited to report an instance if they heard such; Siraj did. And frankly, who would willingly soak up such prolonged stupidity? Any reader who thinks so is invited to forward their work address: I'll be happy to follow them all day, shouting a drunken joke about their name, taking pleasure in their misfortune and discomfiture. For another thing, racial epithets are not a precondition of racism. On the contrary, racism can be most pernicious where it is politest. The majority judgments in Plessy v Ferguson, the foundational documents of American segregation, are superbly eloquent; the terms of the Wannsee Protocol for the 'Preparation of the Final Solution of the European Jewish Question' are smoothly bureaucratic; the mumbo jumbo of eugenics masked itself with a tone of science and learning. There is also such a thing as racism of tone. A fair-skinned person addressing a dark-skinned person with a note of contempt or mockery carries an awful weight of history. The fair-skinned person is unlikely to grasp this, having never had to think otherwise, having never had to suffer being stereotyped or derided merely on the basis of their complexion. They may not intend offence – most, I suspect, would recoil at the idea. But it would cost them nothing to consider how they might be heard. Now for some whataboutisms. What about the Barmy Army and their treatment of Steve Smith and David Warner in England in 2019? Yes, it was disgustingly stupid; it also ruined the Edgbaston Test for many fans, English as well as Australian. The Barmy Army is more sinned against than sinning, but they took this demonstration of allegiance far too far, and should have been more consistently called out on it. Good. I'm glad we had this little chat. What about the young men whose behaviour was called out at the SCG? Were they not 'scapegoated'? This objection is not unreasonable. They may well have been held responsible for the misdeeds of others, and singled out because of the thinness of the crowd, for on other days their chants and cries might have been submerged in the general hubbub. Yet they appear to have suffered no reputational damage. No media jackals are in pursuit; no PC mob has accused them of cultural appropriation for wearing Hawaiian shirts. We do not know who they are. We do not know where they went, although one report is that they were simply encouraged to move elsewhere. It is hard, therefore, to argue that their civil liberties were infringed. Their treatment, at least so far, appears to have been perfectly moderate and proportional. What about Yabba? Yabba, for those who don't know, was the nickname of SH Gascoigne, a Balmain rabbitoh who, through the 1920s and 1930,s was the personification of Australian barracking, drawing crowds to the Hill simply for his own booming voice and acerbic wit. In 2008, he was commemorated in a bronze cast in the Victor Trumper Stand. 'By today's juvenile standards,' erupted a heckler of this column a couple of days ago, 'it's a wonder they haven't demolished the statue of Yabba.' This is perfectly bogus. Yabba loved cricket. He patronised Test matches and grade games alike. He drank little; he did not swear or curse. His declared enemies were boring batsmen ('Whoa! He's bolted') and inaccurate bowling ('Your length is lousy but you bowl a good width'). He ribbed everyone alike; he developed strong affinities for visiting players like Patsy Hendren, Arthur Gilligan and the aforementioned Jack Hobbs. When Hobbs played his last Test in Australia, he made a point of going to the Hill to shake Yabba's hand. Yabba, according to Richard Cashman's canonical treatise on Australian cricket spectating, 'Ave a Go, Yer Mug!', even liked women's cricket when introduced to it and refrained from his usual boisterousness. 'Why should I?' he asked. 'The ladies are playing all right for me. This is cricket, this is. Leave the girls alone.' Some readers will probably regard this as making him unbearably woke. So Yabba is under no threat at all. In fact, we could all do with being a bit more like him, he who supported honest effort in good spirit by whomever caught his eye, setting an example of seeing through the cricketer to the cricket itself. One last thing: what goes around comes around. Remember Rockley Wilson? He went on to teach at Winchester, where one of his students was none other than Douglas Jardine. When Jardine was appointed England's captain ahead of the Bodyline series, he confessed a deep foreboding. 'We shall win the Ashes,' Wilson prophesied. 'But we may lose a Dominion.' He wasn't far off. Excerpted with permission from Indian Summers: Australia versus India, Cricket's Battle of the Titans, Gideon Haigh, Westland.
Motor Trend
02-07-2025
- Automotive
- Motor Trend
Nonsensical Roundabout With Corners Causes Chaos in Australia
The roundabout (traffic circle to some of us Yanks) is a great idea for certain intersections. It speeds us along when traffic is light (pro tip: you don't need to stop if no one's coming from your driver's side) and it eliminates those annoying red lights where we are held for traffic that never comes. Europe, particularly the UK, has embraced them decades, and we're seeing more and more traffic circles in the States. A new diamond-shaped roundabout in Austral, Sydney, caused confusion and chaos, with drivers struggling to navigate it. The Liverpool City Council, facing a public inquiry, is unclear about its construction and costs. The roundabout's shape and lack of signage contributed to the issues. This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next But it is apparently possible to screw up a roundabout, and officials in Austral, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, have apparently mastered this dubious achievement by creating what could best be called a 'rhombusabout.' The problem seems to have stemmed from a little overzealous action on behalf of the local council, which was urged to ease traffic on a particularly busy road. At one not-quite-perpendicular intersection, road workers created a new roundabout in the shape of a squished diamond (Rhombus! Sort of! Just let us have "rhombusabout."). Chaos ensued almost immediately. According to news reports, some drivers didn't realize there was a new roundabout there—the traffic control device appears entirely painted on barely raised ground—and blasted straight through. The biggest problem, though, seemed to be motorists who could not figure out how to negotiate the tighter right turns (across opposing traffic, similar to our left turns, since stuff's backwards in right-hand-drive Australia) without driving right over the top of the diamond—in fact, three cars in a row were shown doing exactly that on live television as 9 News reporter Sarah Stewart looked on. 'No one knows what to do,' said Stewart. 'It's this funny shape, there's not enough room and there's not enough warning. People get on top of it and they don't know what to do.' Cars going straight through the roundabout could not seem to jog around the diamond without clipping the corners, and the edges of the roundabout were already showing tire discoloration just hours after the ill-conceived roundabout was installed. How did this all go so wrong? No one seems to know. Anchor Karl Stevanovic of Australia's Today show grilled Liverpool City council member Peter Ristevski, who claimed not to know how the roundabout was built, calling it an 'operational matter' and appearing to blame rogue road contractors. He also noted that the Liverpool City Council was subject to a public inquiry regarding corruption and confidence, and admitted the council had no idea what the rombusabout cost or what it would cost to rectify. 'A roundabout, by name and nature, is round,' Stevanovic drily observed. Indeed.
Daily Mail
28-06-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
Council removes 'absolute joke' of a roundabout after hundreds of complaints from motorists
An 'absolute joke' of a roundabout has been removed from a Sydney intersection just days after it was installed following hundreds of complaints from motorists. Drivers were left stunned by the diamond-shaped roundabout at the intersection of Twenty-Eight Avenue and Fifteenth Avenue in Austral, in Sydney's south-west. Motorists said there were a number of near-misses at the busy intersection as drivers attempted to navigate its unique shape. Liverpool City Councillor Peter Ristevski told Nine's Today program on Friday he had received hundreds of complaints about the roundabout. 'My inbox was bombarded with over 300 responses asking, "What is going on? You guys can't even build a roundabout",' he said. Today host Karl Stefanovic described the roundabout as 'an absolute joke', adding it would unfortunately fall on ratepayers to fund its removal. Images published by Nine News on Saturday showed the roundabout had been painted over on Friday night, leaving a dark almond-shaped print on the road. Liverpool City Council chief executive Jason Breton said the council made the decision to remove the roundabout following the community feedback. 'We're going to take the roundabout out over the weekend,' Mr Breton said in a video posted to social media. 'We'll put the road surface back to its original position. 'We'll work with the state and federal governments about the state road and how we can improve it as we move towards the grant money that's been allocated for the area.' Footage previously shared by Nine News depicted the alarming moment two cars nearly collided while attempting to navigate the roundabout. In another close call, a ute had to carry out a three-point turn to move through the roundabout. Drivers were united in their opposition to the roundabout, which was introduced as part of a broader effort to ease congestion and improve safety in the area. 'This has to be one of the worst and most dangerously designed roundabouts I've ever seen,' a local in an Austral and Leppington community forum said on Facebook. 'You literally have to do a U-turn just to turn right — in either direction!' Another said: 'Whoever designed the 'coffin' roundabout may have taken the name a bit too literally.' 'Its layout is so confusing and hazardous, it feels less like a traffic solution and more like a traffic trap,' they said. NSW MP for Leppington Nathan Hagarty previously called the roundabout a 'waste of money', saying the council needed to 'come back and fix up a job'. The local politician posted to the community forum on Sunday saying he had been in contact with the Liverpool Council over concerns about the temporary roundabout. A spokesperson for Transport for New South Wales said the department spoke with Liverpool City Council ahead of the roundabout's removal following complaints from the Member for Leppington and the community. The roundabout was one of five recently installed in the area, including others on Eleventh, Fifteenth and Tenth avenues. In January, the federal and state governments jointly announced a $1billion upgrade to Fifteenth Avenue, but work is not expected to start until 2027.
