Australia & Pacifics

SYDNEY, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Australian Indigenous leaders called on Sunday for a week of silence and reflection after a referendum to recognise First Peoples in the constitution was decisively rejected.

More than 60% of Australians voted "No" in the landmark referendum on Saturday that asked whether to alter the constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people with an Indigenous advisory body, the "Voice to Parliament", that would have advised parliament on matters concerning the community.

SYDNEY, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Australia has cancelled two planned flights to repatriate citizens from Israel and the Palestinian territories due to the "highly challenging" situation, the foreign affairs department said on Saturday.

Repatriation flights scheduled for Saturday and Sunday will not depart as planned amid a "highly challenging and rapidly changing" situation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said in a statement on social media.

14 October 2023; AA: Voting has ended in New Zealand's general elections and the counting of ballots has begun, the country's election authority said on Saturday.

"Preliminary results will be released progressively throughout the night," said the Electoral Commission.

Thousands of New Zealanders on Saturday cast their ballots to elect representatives to parliament from 19 political parties.

Voting opened at 9 a.m. local time Saturday (2000GMT on Friday) and closed at 7 p.m. (0600GMT).

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australians resoundingly rejected on Saturday a referendum proposal to create an advocacy committee to offer advice to Parliament on policies that affect Indigenous people — the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority.

The government proposed the first constitutional change since 1977 as a step forward in Indigenous rights. But the vote divided Indigenous leaders as well as the wider community.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Conservative former businessman Christopher Luxon will be New Zealand’s next prime minister after winning a decisive election victory Saturday.

People voted for change after six years of a liberal government led for most of that time by Jacinda Ardern.

The exact makeup of Luxon’s government is still to be determined as ballots continued to be counted.

CANBERRA, Oct 12 (NNN-AAP) – The Australian government announced it will run repatriation flights for citizens stranded in Israel.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong last night, confirmed that, flag carrier, Qantas, will operate two flights from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport to London, for Australians who do not already have plans to leave the area.

The flights will be operated free of charge for passengers, with Qantas to absorb the costs.

SYDNEY, Oct 7 (NNN-AAP) – Police in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), confirmed that four people, including children, are believed to have died, after a plane crashed near Canberra, yesterday noon.

According to the latest update by NSW Police, the Cirrus SR22 aircraft, took off from Canberra Airport at 2.30 p.m. local time, and was travelling to Armidale with four people, a man and three children on board. “They are yet to be identified. A report will be prepared for the information of the Coroner,” police noted.

SYDNEY, Oct 6 (NNN-AAP) – A plane crashed in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), today, with the number of people on board currently remaining unknown.

NSW Police Force confirmed in a statement that, emergency services are now at the scene of a fatal plane crash in Gundaroo, a small village located about 35 km north of Canberra.

According to the statement, officers were called to a property on Hadlow Drive in Gundaroo, just before 3:00 p.m. local time, following reports of a plane having crashed and caught fire.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — From Sunday, workers at the main United States base in Antarctica will no longer be able to walk into a bar and order a beer, after the federal agency that oversees the research program decided to stop serving alcohol.

McMurdo Station will not be going entirely dry, the National Science Foundation confirmed. Researchers and support staff will still be able to buy a weekly ration of alcohol from the station store. But the policy shift could prove significant because the bars have been central to social life in the isolated environment.

SYDNEY, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare said he skipped a Pacific Islands leaders summit at the White House this week to avoid a "lecture" and because he had more pressing issues at home.

Sogavare, who has built close ties with China, held a press conference on Wednesday after arriving back in Solomon Islands from the United States, where he spoke at the United Nations but did not join other Pacific Island Forum leaders in Washington for a two-day summit.