January • 1 January – • It becomes illegal to import
disposable vapes into Australia. • As
Victoria transitions to clean energy, the state imposes a ban on
natural gas connections for new dwellings, apartment buildings and residential subdivisions. Controversy arises when it's discovered the
Morrison Government failed to hand over some documents relating to Australia's involvement in the
2003 invasion of Iraq to the
National Archives in 2020 for public release. Anthony Albanese announces an inquiry will be held to find out whether or not the documents were withheld intentionally. • 4 January –
Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel arrive in
South East Queensland after being deployed to help the region in the aftermath of severe weather over the Christmas/New Year period. In
Far North Queensland, there are also calls for ADF assistance to help with the clean-up following severe weather caused by
Cyclone Jasper. • 5 January – Queensland premier
Steven Miles announces a $5 million funding agreement between the state and federal government which would see
discounted flights and accommodation being offered to tourists to entice them back to Far North Queensland following
Cyclone Jasper. • 8 January – The
New South Wales Police Force claim to have dismantled a criminal syndicate allegedly attempting to export more than a million dollars of
Australian reptiles, including 257 lizards, to Hong Kong. • 9 January – Prime minister Anthony Albanese warns Australian supermarkets to pass on savings to consumers stating: "It's not acceptable to see record profits at a time when people are doing it so tough." He announces former Labor minister
Craig Emerson will lead a review of the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct while Queensland premier
Steven Miles writes to the CEOs of
Woolworths,
Coles,
Aldi and
IGA expressing concern about the disparity between retail prices and the amount farmers are paid. The
Coalition also call for an
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission inquiry, accusing the supermarkets of imposing excessive retail
markups. • 10 January – • Prime minister Anthony Albanese announces financial support for flood victims in Victoria as
Murchison experiences moderate flooding with the
Goulburn River peaking at 10.47 metres, with an expected peak of 10.4 metres at
Shepparton on 13 January. •
Transport for NSW confirms a park built above the Sydney's
Rozelle Interchange has been closed to the public just three weeks after it opened due to the discovery of
asbestos in
mulch around a children's playground. The discovery prompts an urgent audit to determine the number of other sites which could be affected. •
Woolworths Group confirms that
Woolworths Supermarkets and
Big W will no longer be stocking
Australia Day-themed merchandise citing declining sales and the
broader discussion about the national holiday. Liberal Opposition Leader
Peter Dutton calls for a
boycott on Woolworths for its decision. • 14 January –
Mary Donaldson becomes the first Australian-born queen consort of a European monarchy when she is proclaimed
Queen of Denmark when her husband
Frederik X ascends the throne following the
abdication of his mother Margrethe II. The decision to mark the occasion by temporarily replacing the
Aboriginal flag with the
Danish flag at
Parliament House in Hobart sparks criticism from some in Tasmania's Aboriginal community. • 15 January – • Foreign minister
Penny Wong travels to the
Middle East to renew calls for a ceasefire in the
Israel-Gaza war. • A legal challenge by a group of
Tiwi Islanders in an attempt to stop the construction of the
Santos gas pipeline in the
Timor Sea is dismissed by Justice
Natalie Charlesworth who lifts a temporary injunction allowing Santos to begin construction work. • 21 January – The Victorian Liberal and National opposition announced that they would be withdrawing its support for a
state treaty, reversing their previous support for the proposal. This follows the Queensland opposition reversing their support in October 2023. • 24 January – The
Bureau of Statistics' population clock ticks over to estimate
Australia's population has reached 27 million. • 25 January –
Cyclone Kirrily crosses the North Queensland coast at
Townsville as a Category 3 system before weakening. • 27 January – Queensland state Labor MP
Jim Madden resigns from
parliament to vie for a position as a local councillor with
Ipswich City Council in the
2024 Queensland local elections on 16 March. Madden's resignation triggers the
2024 Ipswich West state by-election which premier
Steven Miles recommends to be held on 16 March - the same day as the local elections and the
2024 Inala state by-election.
February • 1 February – Former
New South Wales police officer Daniel Keneally, the son of former premier and senator
Kristina Keneally, receives a 15-month intensive corrective services order after having been found guilty in November 2023 of
fabricating evidence. • 4 February – 51-year-old
Samantha Murphy disappears after leaving her home in
Ballarat to go for her regular morning run. Her disappearance triggers a widespread search and appeal from police for CCTV or dashcam vision from the day she disappeared. • 5 February – Australian writer
Yang Hengjun receives a suspended death sentence in Beijing, five years after being charged with spying and imprisoned in China. • 6 February – The
Australian Parliament returns for the first sitting day of 2024. • 8 February – Labor's
Right to Disconnect bill passes the
Senate but they are forced into an attempt to introduce additional legislation to reverse an amendment which allows for criminal penalties for employers who breach a
Fair Work Commission order to stop contacting workers. • 9 February –
Reserve Bank of Australia governor
Michele Bullock appears before a parliamentary hearing for the first time where she says she doesn't agree with the
International Monetary Fund that Australia should be lifting interest rates higher. • 10 February – Sitting Liberal MP
David Honey loses preselection for the next Australian federal election, being defeated by Sandra Brewer. • 12 February – •
Liverpool West Public School in Sydney is closed after the
New South Wales Environment Protection Authority confirms bonded asbestos has been discovered in garden mulch at the school. Students and staff at the school are subsequently relocated to Gulyangarri Public School for the foreseeable future. Contaminated mulch is also discovered at
Campbelltown Hospital, prompting part of the hospital to be closed off to the public. • 14 February – •
Premier of Tasmania Jeremy Rockliff calls an early election in
Tasmania after becoming a minority government. • It is announced that Sydney's annual
Mardi Gras Fair Day scheduled for 18 February is cancelled due to the discovery of asbestos in
Victoria Park amid
Sydney's asbestos contamination crisis. • 15 February – Anthony Albanese releases a joint statement with Canadian prime minister
Justin Trudeau and New Zealand prime minister
Christopher Luxon to express their concerns over Israel's plan for a ground offensive in
Rafah. The joint statement is issued after Australian foreign minister
Penny Wong expresses her own concerns, describing any ground invasion of Rafah as "unjustifiable". The list of contaminated sites now totals more than twenty sites. In each case, the contaminated mulch is traced back to a waste facility in
Bringelly. • Two groups of approximately 25
foreign nationals are discovered in
Beagle Bay, Western Australia after they are believed to have travelled from Indonesia by boat, prompting
Australian Border Force officials to travel to the coastal town to question the men. The arrival of the men prompts federal opposition leader
Peter Dutton to accuse Anthony Albanese's government of weakening Australia's border protection arrangements. Another group of foreign nationals are discovered at a remote campsite north of Beagle Bay the following day. • 17 February – Sitting Liberal MP
Ian Goodenough loses preselection for the next Australian federal election, being defeated by
Vince Connelly. • 19 February – • Northern Territory
Country Liberal MP
Joshua Burgoyne is charged by
NT Police with careless driving causing serious harm after a two-vehicle accident in Alice Springs on 26 August 2023, and will face court for the first mention of the alleged offence on 4 March 2024. • Former
Australian Greens leader
Bob Brown is arrested for trespassing at an anti-logging protest in Tasmania. • Asbestos-contaminated mulch is found at another seven locations in Sydney, bringing the total to 41 separate sites. • Labor senator for Western Australia
Louise Pratt announces she will step down at the
2025 Australian federal election citing health reasons. • 21 February –
Christopher Saunders, the former
Catholic Bishop of Broome, is arrested in
Broome by the
Western Australia Police Force Child Abuse Squad and taken into custody. He is subsequently charged with 19 offences dating back to 2008. • 26 February – The Board of the
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras withdraws their invitation to the
NSW Police Force to march in the 2024 Mardi Gras amid the investigation into the alleged murders of television presenter
Jesse Baird and his partner Luke Davies. The
Australian Federal Police confirm the following day that they have made the decision to also withdraw from marching in the Mardi Gras parade. • 27 February – • Two bodies are found at
Bungonia, near
Goulburn, New South Wales, likely to be those of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies. The bodies are discovered four days after a New South Wales police officer was charged with their murders. • Former prime minister
Scott Morrison delivers his
final speech as a member of the
Australian Parliament. • The Albanese government's legislation for modifying the
stage three tax cuts passes the Senate in an evening sitting. • Justice
Glenn Martin rules that
COVID-19 vaccination mandates for some Queensland
frontline workers breached section 58 of the Human Rights Act and declared directives given to
Queensland Police Service staff were unlawful. Queensland premier
Steven Miles responds by saying the state government was seeking crown law advice but that he stands by the actions taken by the government during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Queensland. • 28 February – An agreement is reached between the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Board and the NSW Police Force, which sees gay and lesbian
liaison police officers permitted to march in the annual parade, but without their uniforms or weapons. • 29 February – •
Cumberland City Council votes to ban drag queen storytime from council events. •
Australian Greens senator
Janet Rice is censured after holding a placard denouncing human rights abuses in the Philippines while President
Bongbong Marcos was addressing Parliament.
March • 2 March – • A
by-election is held in the federal seat of
Dunkley which is won by
Jodie Belyea who retains the seat for the
Australian Labor Party following the death of
Peta Murphy in December 2023. • The 46th
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras street parade is held, which begins with a
moment of silence to commemorate the lives of
Jesse Baird and Luke Davies. • 4 March – Simon Kennedy is selected by the
Liberal Party to run as their candidate in the
2024 Cook by-election following the resignation of Scott Morrison. • 6 March – •
Qantas is convicted and fined $250,000 for illegally standing down an employee during the
COVID-19 pandemic. • The
Queensland Parliament passes an
omnibus bill which will see
coercive control become a criminal offence with
stealthing also to be criminalised in Queensland. • 7 March – • A 22-year-old man is arrested in connection to the
disappearance of Samantha Murphy and is subsequently charged with murder. •
Katter's Australian Party leader
Robbie Katter and deputy leader
Nick Dametto are referred to the Queensland Government's Ethics Committee after confronting
pro-Palestinian protestors outside
Parliament House in Brisbane. • 16 March – • The
2024 Queensland local elections are held which sees
Adrian Schrinner re-elected as the
Lord Mayor of Brisbane. • The
2024 Inala state by-election is held which sees Labor retain the seat. Despite a significant swing against the government being recorded, Labor's candidate
Margie Nightingale defeats LNP candidate Trang Yen. • The
2024 Ipswich West state by-election is held which sees Labor lose the seat, with LNP candidate
Darren Zanow defeating Labor's Wendy Bourne after a significant swing against the government is recorded. • 18 March –
Pro-Palestinian protestors disrupt
Question Time at
Parliament House in Canberra. • 20 March – • In an interview with
Nigel Farage on
GB News, former United States president
Donald Trump threatens to oust Australian ambassador
Kevin Rudd from his position if he shows any hostility should Trump again become president. • Foreign minister
Penny Wong meets her Chinese counterpart
Wang Yi in Canberra for the Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue. Prior to Wang's meeting with former prime minister
Paul Keating the following day, Wong warns that Keating is "entitled to his views" but that "he does not speak for the government nor the country." • 21 March – Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi hosts former Australian prime minister Paul Keating at the China consulate in Sydney. • 23 March – • The
2024 Tasmanian state election is held. Neither major party achieves an outright majority, resulting in a
hung parliament. • The
2024 Dunstan state by-election is held in South Australia which is triggered by the resignation of
Steven Marshall. The result sees Labor candidate
Cressida O'Hanlon become the new member, defeating Liberal candidate Anna Finizio. • Former NSW state transport minister
Andrew Constance wins pre-selection to contest the seat of
Gilmore at the
2025 federal election. • 25 March – • Federal Liberal MP
Rowan Ramsey announces he will not be recontesting the next Australian federal election. • 26 March – • Violence and unrest breaks out in
Alice Springs which leads to Northern Territory chief minister
Eva Lawler declaring a
state of emergency and the introduction of a two-week
curfew for under 18's. There are also calls for federal intervention. • It is revealed a wild
magpie which had been visiting a
Gold Coast couple and bonding with their English
staffy since they rescued it as a chick in 2020 had been "voluntarily surrendered" to
DESI who accused the couple of taking the magpie from the wild and keeping it unlawfully. The magpie's seizure draws widespread condemnation with Queensland premier
Steven Miles stating that common sense needed to prevail in this instance and that he would support the authorities to work with the couple so they could obtain the appropriate permits. • 28 March – • Australian Defence Force chief
Angus Campbell issues an unreserved apology on the final day of the
Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide for deficiencies in the way the service provided support for veterans during and after their service. •
Sally Capp announces she will stand down as the
Lord Mayor of Melbourne in June, ahead of the
2024 Victorian local elections in October. • Prime minister Anthony Albanese, energy minister
Chris Bowen, and industry minister
Ed Husic travel to the former
Liddell Power Station in the
Hunter Valley to announce a $1 billion solar panel program. However, it is later revealed they travelled into the area on two separate private jets which landed at
Scone Airport which is met with criticism and accusations of hypocrisy. When questioned about the issue, Bowen said the decision was made by the
RAAF.
April • 2 April – Foreign minister Penny Wong confirms an Australian
World Central Kitchen aid worker has been killed in an apparent Israeli air strike in Gaza. • 3 April –
Sam Mostyn is announced as Australia's next
Governor-General, succeeding
David Hurley. Some right-wing commentators such as
Sky News Australia host
Chris Kenny and former executive director of the
libertarian think tank
Institute of Public Affairs,
John Roskam, politician
Pauline Hanson, and conservative lobby group
Advance Australia, criticised the appointment owing to her past activism, which included having referred to
Australia Day as "
Invasion Day" and support for Australia to become a republic. • 4 April – The state member of the Northern Tablelands
Adam Marshall announces he will leave the
New South Wales Parliament in May to pursue employment in the private sector. Marshall's impending resignation will trigger the
2024 Northern Tablelands state by-election. • 4–6 April – Intense torrential rainfall affects parts of New South Wales and Queensland, with the
Greater Sydney region, the
Mid North Coast and the
Illawarra being among the areas worst affected. The
Warragamba Dam spills over with authorities also expecting the
Woronora Dam,
Cataract Dam and
Nepean Dam to overflow. • 9 April – • A 21-year-old man appears in the Magistrates Court in
Ballarat, Victoria charged with the murder of his 23-year-old ex-partner Hannah McGuire whose body was found in a burnt out car in
Scarsdale on 5 April. McGuire's death is the third such death in the Ballarat area allegedly caused by a male perpetrator following the alleged murders of Rebecca Young and Samantha Murphy, which sparks a national conversation about the prevention of
violence against women, and the organisation of a snap rally to protest against men's violence. • Foreign minister
Penny Wong uses a speech at the
Australian National University in Canberra to announce that the
Australian Government is considering recognising
Palestinian statehood, and repeats that the international recognition of
Palestine as a state could assist in building momentum towards a two-state solution for
Israel and Palestine. Her comments provoke widespread debate and criticism. • The Tasmania Civil and Administrative Tribunal finds the
Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart had engaged in direct discrimination after refusing a man entry into the "Ladies Lounge" exhibit during his visit in April 2023. The museum is ordered to stop refusing entry to people who do not identify as "ladies" within 28 days. The offender is shot dead by police inspector Amy Scott who is praised for her actions.
John Singleton's daughter Dawn and
Kerry Good's daughter Ashlee are among the victims who were fatally stabbed. A security officer who was working at the centre is also stabbed to death. • The
2024 Cook by-election is held, which is easily won by
Liberal candidate
Simon Kennedy who achieves 62.61% of the first preference vote, defeating his nearest rival
Greens candidate Martin Moore who attracts 16.68% of the first preference vote. • 15 April – •
Bruce Lehrmann loses the civil defamation case he brought against
Network 10 and
Lisa Wilkinson in the
Federal Court, with
Justice Michael Lee finding on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped
Brittany Higgins. •
2024 Wakeley stabbing: Four people, including Bishop
Mar Mari Emmanuel, are injured in a mass stabbing inside the Christ The Good Shepherd Church operated by the
Assyrian Church of the East in
Wakeley, New South Wales. • 16 April – • Australia's e-safety commissioner
Julie Inman Grant orders
X and
Meta to remove footage of the
stabbing of
Mar Mari Emmanuel. The order is met with resistance from
Elon Musk and prompts a protracted debate about free speech, with Musk refusing to delete the videos although it had blocked the content in Australia. A two-day injunction to compel X to hide posts that include the footage of the attack was later extended to 10 May 2024. • Outgoing
Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci is threatened with jail time after failing to answer a question put to him by Greens senator
Nick McKim during a Senate inquiry into supermarket pricing. • Authorities report the worst mass
coral bleaching incident on the
Great Barrier Reef on record. • 17 April – New research released by
The Australia Institute finds that
red imported fire ants will likely cost Australians more than $22 billion by the 2040s if eradications efforts are unsuccessful. • 22 April –
Steve Gollschewski is named as Queensland's new police commissioner, succeeding
Katarina Carroll. • 25 April – Annual
ANZAC Day commemorations are held throughout Australia. Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese attends the
dawn service at
Isurava in Papua New Guinea after completing the Kokoda Track with
James Marape. • 26 April – Weekend rallies against gender-based violence commence being held across Australia organised by advocacy group What Were You Wearing, as part of a nationwide campaign to end
violence against women. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's appearance at the rally in Canberra on 28 April ends in controversy when his claims that his requests to speak at the rally had been declined were described by organiser Sarah Williams as a "full out lie" who then breaks down in tears. • 30 April – The
Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal clears the former mayor of
Rockhampton and current
2024 state election independent candidate
Margaret Strelow of allegations of misconduct which prompted her resignation as mayor in 2020, triggering the controversial
2021 Rockhampton Region mayoral by-election.
May • 4 May – Queensland's assistant minister for health
Brittany Lauga alleges she was drugged and then sexually assaulted on 28 April 2024 during a night out in
Yeppoon, with the alleged incident filmed by bystanders who then post the video on
Snapchat. • 6 May – Queensland premier
Steven Miles uses
Labour Day to announce that the state's public servants will soon be entitled to ten days
paid leave to access
reproductive health care at a cost of $80 million each year. A pro-Palestine protestor is later arrested for allegedly throwing eggs at Miles during the annual Labour Day March in Brisbane. • 7 May – The
Reserve Bank of Australia announces it will leave the interest rate steady at 4.35%. • 8 May –
Cumberland City Council votes to ban books depicting
same-sex relationships from their libraries, citing "sexualisation" concerns. The ban receives condemnation from a number of
Labor public figures and organisations, such as environment minister
Tanya Plibersek, several ministers in the NSW government, the
NSW Council for Civil Liberties, independent federal MP
Allegra Spender, and
Equality Australia. • 10 May – •
Bruce Lehrmann is ordered by the
Federal Court of Australia to pay most of
Network 10's legal fees following his failed defamation case against the network and journalist
Lisa Wilkinson. • Norio Nagata, the vice-speaker of
Minokama city assembly in
Gifu Prefecture in central Japan resigns after an alleged incident involving the daughter of
Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson in which Nagata allegedly sexually harassed her at a karaoke afterparty following a welcome reception on 3 April. Minokamo's mayor Hiroto Fujii had earlier issued an apology to its
sister city, which Dickerson accepted. • 11 May – Federal agricultural minister
Murray Watt announces that Western Australia's
live sheep export trade will end from 1 May 2028. While the
RSPCA welcomes the move, the announcement is condemned by Nationals leader
David Littleproud, Western Australian opposition leader
Shane Love,
National Farmers' Federation CEO Tony Maher and WA Livestock president Geoff Pearson. Western Australian premier
Roger Cook also criticises the support package announced for farmers to transition away from live exports. • 14 May – •
David McBride is sentenced to five years and eight months jail after pleading guilty to stealing and sharing classified military documents, which were then used by the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation for the program
The Afghan Files, to broadcast allegations of Australian soldiers being involved in illegal killings. • Treasurer
Jim Chalmers delivers the
2024 Australian federal budget. • 15 May – • The Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal dismisses an appeal against
Hobart City Council's decision to remove a statue of Tasmanian premier
William Crowther. However before the decision was delivered, vandals had cut the statue down and sprayed graffiti on the plinth. • Labor senator
Fatima Payman accuses Israel of
genocide and calls on her own party to cease trade with Israel. Her comments, particularly her use of the controversial phrase "
From the river to the sea" draw widespread condemnation. • 16 May – • The
Federal Court of Australia rules that federal environment minister
Tanya Plibersek does not need to consider environmental impacts of emissions when she gives approvals for gas or coal projects. • Australians are urged to reconsider their need to travel to New Caledonia after
violent riots break out in the French territory. Foreign minister
Penny Wong later states that Australia is working with authorities to assess options to ensure the safe return of Australians who are stranded in New Caledonia. •
Snowtown murders accomplice 65-year-old Mark Ray Haydon is released from the Adelaide pre-release centre and back into the general community after spending 25 years in jail for being an accessory to Australia's worst serial killings. • 18 May – A
Victorian Labor Party conference at
Moonee Valley Racecourse attended by Australian prime minister
Anthony Albanese is stormed by
pro-Palestinian protestors prompting a major security alert. • 19 May – Six people are arrested in Melbourne after pro-Palestinian protestors descend on the pro-Israel "Stop the Hate, Mate" rally held on the steps of
Parliament House and organised by a Christian group called Never Again is Now. • 22 May –
Agriculture Victoria confirms the
H7N3 strain of
avian influenza has been detected at an egg farm in Victoria, forcing hundreds of thousands of chickens to be euthanased. The
Victorian Department of Health also confirm there had previously been a human case of the
H5N1 strain of avian influenza after a child returning from overseas tested positive in March, but who has since recovered. • 24 May – 59-year-old Jennifer Petelczyc and her 18-year-old daughter Gretl are murdered by 63-year-old Mark James Bombara who then shoots himself dead in the Perth suburb of
Floreat. Bombara's daughter subsequently accuses the
Western Australia Police Force of repeatedly ignoring her requests for help with her father. Federal social services minister
Amanda Rishworth also describes the response from the Western Australia Police Force prior to the murders as "inadequate." • 25 May - Australia's largest Jewish school in
Melbourne is vandalized with graffiti. • 30 May – The "Keep the Sheep" campaign is launched by Western Australia's agricultural sector, protesting the Federal Government's decision to end live sheep exports. The campaign's launch is preceded by a large protest rally in Perth the following day in which trucks and farm vehicles were used to bring traffic to a crawl in the Perth CBD.
June • 1 June – Deputy prime minister
Richard Marles is confronted by officers from China's
People's Liberation Army at the
Shangri-La Dialogue conference in Singapore after they took issue with Marles' speech. • 2 June – The body of
Natasha Ryan is discovered on a golf course in
Rockhampton. Police say there are no suspicious circumstances. • 7 June – Queensland premier Steven Miles announces that
Peter Andrews,
Natalie Cook,
Keri Craig-Lee,
Scott Hutchinson,
Getano Lui (Jnr),
Sir Bruce Small and
LifeFlight Australia have been named as the 2024
Queensland Greats. • 9 June – The
2024 King's Birthday Honours list is announced, in which
Daniel Andrews,
Karen Canfell,
Simon Crean,
Mark McGowan,
Jonathan Mills and
Samantha Mostyn are all made a
Companion of the Order of Australia. • 15 June – It's reported approximately 300 executive positions from
Transport for NSW are expected to be abolished over a period of three years. • 16 June – Several hundred protestors gather outside
Adelaide Zoo during a visit by Chinese premier
Li Qiang who announces two new pandas will be loaned to the zoo when
Wang Wang and Fu Ni return to China. • 17 June – Bird flu (
H7N9) spreads to a seventh Australian poultry farm. • 18 June – Former
treasurer of New South Wales Matt Kean announces his resignation from politics. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese subsequently announces Kean as the new chair of the
Climate Change Authority. • 19 June – • The Melbourne office of Labor MP
Josh Burns is extensively damaged by
pro-Palestinian protestors who vandalise the office by smashing windows, pouring paint and starting fires. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemns the attack and said the targeting of a Jewish MP was "very distressing". • A delegation of Australian senior ministers including
Richard Marles,
Penny Wong and
Pat Conroy arrive in Papua New Guinea at attend the 30th Ministerial Forum in Port Moresby. During the visit, Australia announces a range of initiatives under a bilateral security agreement with Papua New Guinea. • 20 June – •
Bronnie Taylor steps down as
deputy leader of the
New South Wales National Party and announces she will be leaving politics in August. • Western Australian upper house MP
Louise Kingston resigns from the
Western Australian National Party and accuses opposition leader
Shane Love of bullying and harassment. Love denies Kingston's allegations. • 30 June – Labor senator
Fatima Payman says that she has been indefinitely suspended from the
Labor caucus following an interview on
ABC TV's
Insiders program where she said she would
cross the floor again if need be. A Labor spokesperson confirms that Payman had been suspended because she had "placed herself outside the privilege" of participating in the caucus but would be permitted to return when she decides to respect the caucus and her colleagues. •
Sam Mostyn is sworn in as the 28th
Governor-General of Australia. • 2 July – Australia issues statements to several
social media and
search engine websites commanding them to draft and enforce guidelines to prevent minors from seeing inappropriate material by 3 October, or else the companies will face national restrictions. • 4 July – Protestors target
Parliament House in Canberra, with
climate change protestors gluing themselves to bollards in
the foyer while
pro-Palestinian protestors climb onto the roof to unfurl banners. • 7 July –
Bill Shorten confirms
sex work will no longer be funded through the
NDIS under planned reforms. • 11 July – Prime Minister Anthony Albanese commences announcing
Labor candidates for the
2025 Australian federal election. • 12 July –
John Setka resigns as secretary of the Victorian branch of the
CFMEU, citing pressure from "relentless" media coverage. Setka's resignation came just before
Nine newspapers published serious allegations of corruption within the CFMEU. Federal workplace relations minister
Tony Burke indicates he sought advice on how to respond to the allegations. • 15 July - During his weekly spot on local radio station
4RO, Queensland Labor MP
Barry O'Rourke admits he uses the
electoral roll to obtain addresses of people who leave negative comments on his Facebook page so he can visit them in person, which prompts accusations of intimidation from federal LNP MP
Michelle Landry and One Nation's
James Ashby. However, premier
Steven Miles defends O'Rourke, describing it as "a entirely appropriate use of the electoral roll." • 17 July – The allegations of serious misconduct within the CFMEU continues to have repercussions with federal workplace minister
Tony Burke asking the
Australian Federal Police to investigation the allegations, describing the alleged conduct as "abhorrent" and "intolerable." The
ACTU also suspends the construction and general division of the CFMEU as it calls on its members to support the appointment of an independent administrator. New South Wales premier
Chris Minns also moves to suspend the union from the
NSW Labor Party and seeks to stop the party receiving donations from the union. Anthony Albanese also confirms the Queensland branch will also be affected by the decision to appoint an administrator. • 18 July – The
Australian Labor Party's national executive cuts ties with the
CFMEU's construction division, suspending the affiliation with the New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmanian branches of the ALP. • 25 July – • A former
coal miner becomes the first Australian to win a
black lung disease case at trial and is awarded $3.2 million in damages after being diagnosed with pneumoconiosis in 2018, having worked in coal mines in New South Wales and Queensland. • The
Federal Court of Australia rules that there is insufficient evidence that weedkiller
Roundup causes cancer, dismissing a major class action against parent companies
Monsanto and
Bayer. • 28 July – Roughly 40 members of the
Victorian chapter of the far-right
National Socialist Network hold a
flash rally, where they marched from Melbourne's
Fed Square to
Flinders Street Station, clad in all black and carrying a large "
Mass Deportations Now" banner. One person was "arrested at the scene and was interviewed for grossly offensive public conduct," a spokesperson for Victoria Police said. • 30 July – Victoria's health department confirms 33 people have been diagnosed with
Legionnaires' disease within an outbreak affecting the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne.
August • 1 August – • Foreign minister
Penny Wong advises Australians in
Lebanon to leave immediately as tensions increase between Israel and Hezbollah following the assassination of Hamas leader
Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. • The Queensland Government's ban on new gas exploration throughout the
Channel Country comes into effect, stopping any new
fracking projects after amendments were made to the Regional Planning Interest Regulation Act 2014. • 2 August –
One Nation's only state MP in the
Queensland parliament Stephen Andrew confirms that he has received a letter from party leader
Pauline Hanson advising him that she would not be endorsing him as the candidate for
Mirani at the
2024 Queensland state election, prompting Andrew to leave the party. • 3 August –
Northern Territory police commissioner Michael Murphy uses a speech at the
Garma Festival to publicly apologise to "Aboriginal Territorians for the past harms and the injustices caused by members of the Northern Territory police." • 5 August – Prime minister Anthony Albanese announces that the government has elevated
Australia's terrorism threat from "possible" to "probable" but that it did not mean a terrorist attack was "inevitable." • 6 August – Prime minister Anthony Albanese confirms the
ambassador of Iran to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi had received a diplomatic rebuke from the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comments he had made on social media where he called for a "wiping out" of Israelis in Palestine and referring to Israelis as a "zionist plague". • 7 August – The water temperature around the
Great Barrier Reef is reported to have reached a 400-year record high, which is causing more
mass bleaching events. • 8 August – Queensland health minister
Shannon Fentiman announces that the
National Mental Health Commission will launch an investigation in the
Wolston Park mental health institution which closed in 2001, after decades of allegations relating to sexual abuse, beatings and chemical restraint which allegedly occurred between the 1950s and 1980s. • 9 August – With 107 confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease in Melbourne, Victoria's chief health officer Clare Looker confirms all cases in the outbreak are linked to a
cooling tower in the suburb of
Laverton North. • 15 August – •
Peter Dutton, the leader of
Australia's
Liberal Party, calls on the
Australian government to ban the entry of
Palestinian refugees fleeing from conflict in the
Gaza Strip, which is met with significant condemnation from several politicians and organizations as promoting
racial stereotypes. •
SBS World News reports that the Australian government has rejected the majority of
Palestinian visa applications, accepting 2,922 and rejecting 7,111, compared to the granting of 8,746 visas to
Israeli citizens while rejecting only 235. • 24 August – • The
2024 Northern Territory general election is held which sees the
Country Liberal Party achieve a decisive victory, defeating the
Labor Party. Chief minister
Eva Lawler, who was also defeated in her own seat of
Drysdale by
Clinton Howe, concedes defeat to
Lia Finocchiaro. The two MPs will remain in parliament as independents. • The Albanese Government confirms it has dumped a proposal to including a question about gender identity and sexuality in the
2026 Australian census which draws criticism from the
LGBTIQ+ community, lobby groups and politicians. • 27 August – Thousands protest around Australia in support of the
CFMEU, after the federal government passed legislation to circumvent a court process by enabling an administrator to be appointed to the union. Federal
Greens MP
Max Chandler-Mather is criticised for attending the Brisbane rally where signs were held up depicting Anthony Albanese as
Adolf Hitler. Greens leader
Adam Bandt defends Chandler-Mather's attendance at the rally describing it as "legitimate" but described the signs and the comparisons as "offensive". • 30 August – • New South Wales state Liberal MP
Rory Amon resigns from the party and parliament after police charge him with five counts of sexual intercourse with a person over 10 and under 14. In a statement, Amon confirms he had been charged with events alleged to have occurred in 2017 but denies all charges and says he will make his case in the courts. • Anthony Albanese confirms in a radio interview that there would be a question regarding sexuality and gender identity in the 2026 Australian census despite his government earlier confirming they had dumped their proposal to include such a question. • 31 August – Anthony Albanese denies the federal government had changed its policy regarding the inclusion of a question relating to gender identity and sexuality in the 2026 Australian census.
September • 3 September – The takeover of the
New South Wales Liberal Party by the federal liberals have an issue with
Rob Stokes refusing to serve on the proposed administration committee. • 8 September – Federal treasurer
Jim Chalmers confirms the
2026 Australian census will include questions about sexual orientation and gender with the
Australian Bureau of Statistics to determine the questions. • 9 September – • Former Queensland
One Nation MP
Stephen Andrew announces he has joined
Katter's Australian Party, increasing the number of KAP representatives in the
Queensland parliament to four. • Adelaide newspaper
The Advertiser publishes a video and photos which allegedly depict former South Australian Liberal leader
David Speirs snorting a white substance. Speirs strenuously denies any wrongdoing, describing the video as a
deepfake or an elaborate hoax. • 11 September – • Thousands of protestors descend on Melbourne's CBD to rally against the biennial Land Forces International Expo at the MECC, with violent clashes erupting between the protestors and
Victoria Police who describe their operation as the most significant since the
S11 protests at the
World Economic Forum in 2000. (Main article:
2024 Melbourne Land Forces Expo protests) • Independent New South Wales MP
Alex Greenwich wins his defamation case against
Mark Latham, with Latham ordered to pay $160,000 in damages after a tweet about Greenwich published in March 2023 was determined by Justice David O'Callaghan to be defamatory. • 12 September – • Federal defence minister
Richard Marles strips the distinguished service medals of up to nine commanding officers who served in the
War in Afghanistan, implementing the final recommendation of the
Brereton Report which found "credible evidence" Australian soldiers had unlawfully killed 39 people. • The
Australian Electoral Commission confirms the
Division of North Sydney, currently held by Teal independent
Kylea Tink, will be abolished at the
2025 Australian federal election. • 14 September – The
2024 New South Wales local elections are held which sees
Clover Moore re-elected to a record sixth term as
Lord Mayor of Sydney. • 20 September – • The
Mining and Energy Union and five union officials are fined a total of $657,105 after having been found to have breached the
Fair Work Act 190 times after targeting
strikebreakers during a 2017 industrial dispute at Oakey Creek North coal mine with conduct "designed to intimidate". The MEU was further ordered to pay $10,000 to a worker who was targeted. • 23 September – Queensland's new sexual consent laws come into effect with the state moving to an
affirmative consent model, while
stealthing becomes criminalised. • 27 September – Public figures from the
Department of Health and Aged Care show that cases of
mpox in Australia have increased by 570% since July 2024, and show that there were 616 new cases of mpox recorded in Australia, bringing the total amount of confirmed cases to 724.
October • 1 October – • After people gathered at several
Shiite Muslim mosques in Sydney to commemorate the death of leader of terrorist group
Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, prime minister
Anthony Albanese declares that nobody in Australia should be mourning Nasrallah's death while opposition leader
Peter Dutton calls for memorial services for him to be cancelled. • Federal police commissioner
Reece Kershaw warns that action would be taken if Hezbollah or Hamas flags were displayed at national pro-Palestinian rallies on 6 October - the eve of the first anniversary of the
2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. • 5 October –
South Australia Police confirm former South Australian opposition leader
David Speirs has been charged with two counts of supplying a controlled substance. • 6 October – Thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors rally in capital cities on the eve of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Although there is a heightened police presence, authorities praise the overall behaviour of the demonstrators. • Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton accuses prime minister Anthony Albanese of using a motion to mark the first anniversary of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel for personal political gain, with
the Coalition refusing the support the motion as they believe it went beyond paying tribute to the 1,200 lives lost. • 9 October – Former
Labor senator
Fatima Payman launches the
Australia's Voice political party. However, concerns are raised about potential confusion with the
Indigenous Voice to Parliament and the
2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum with
Tom Calma stating that it should be made clear the new party's purpose is not to represent the Voice to Parliament. at Melbourne's
Beaumaris Primary School in the 1960s and 1970s reveals that he has reached a record $8 million
settlement with the
Victorian Government with the man's lawyer describing it as "the biggest publicly known payment to an abuse survivor in Australia." • 12 October – A group of approximately 50
neo-Nazis hold a
white supremacist rally in the New South Wales town of
Corowa which draws condemnation from community leaders including premier
Chris Minns. • 16 October – The
South Australian Legislative Council narrowly votes down 10 to 9, a bill that would ban late-term
abortions. • 17 October – Legislation introduced by the
Country Liberal Party (CLP)
Northern Territory Government to lower the
age of criminal responsibility back to 10 years of age passed the parliament. • 18 October – The
ACT Labor Party is found to have breached electoral laws for running advertisements that were inaccurate and misleading with the
ACT Electoral Commission determining an advertisement targeting shadow health minister
Leanne Castley contained "a statement purporting to be a statement of fact that is inaccurate and misleading to a material extent". • 21 October – Senator
Lidia Thorpe draws widespread condemnation for screaming obscenities at
King Charles III and accusing him of
genocide during an event at
Parliament House in Canberra before she is escorted from the building by security. Criticism of Thorpe comes from all quarters including from prominent Indigenous Australians such academic
Marcia Langton, former senator
Nova Peris and Ngunnawal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan. However, Thorpe's conduct is condoned by others including the
ACT's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people commissioner Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts. • 23 October – A five-year legal case concludes
on country, where
Parks Australia is found guilty of damaging a sacred site in
Kakadu National Park and is ordered to pay at $200,000 fine. • 26 October – • The
2024 Queensland state election is held, with the
Liberal National Party of Queensland attaining the majority of seats, defeating the
Queensland Labor Party, which had been the state's leadership party since 2015.
David Crisafulli is sworn in as
Premier of Queensland on 28 October. • A scandal begins to envelope prime minister Anthony Albanese when journalist Joe Aston claims in his book ''The Chairman's Lounge: The inside story of how Qantas sold us out'' that Albanese sought upgrades for himself and his family on
Qantas flights by directly contacting
Alan Joyce. Albanese denies the accusations, refuting the claims that he had ever contacted anyone at Qantas seeking upgrades and maintains there was always transparency around any perceived flight perks he may have received. • 30 October – • Students record themselves tearing up The Red Zone report into sexual violence at a
University of Sydney Students' Representative Council meeting, prompting the university to launch an immediate investigation. •
NSW Police confirm they have recovered 40,000 limited edition
Bluey coins which were allegedly stolen from a Sydney warehouse facility in July 2024. The discovery is made after a third person allegedly involved in the theft, a 27-year-old woman, is arrested and charged with breaking and entering and disposing of stolen property.
November • 1 November – • A
Federal Court judge rules that
One Nation leader
Pauline Hanson racially discriminated against
Greens deputy leader
Mehreen Faruqi when Hanson told Faruiqi to "piss off back to Pakistan" on
X after Faruiqi had described
Queen Elizabeth II in a post as "a leader of a racist empire" following
her death in 2022. The judge orders Hanson to delete the tweet and to pay Faruqui's legal costs. • An
emperor penguin is discovered on a beach in
Denmark, Western Australia, marking the first reported sighting of the species in Australia. • 6 November – • The
High Court of Australia strikes down an emergency law requiring migrants with criminal records to wear tracking bracelets and observe a curfew, saying that only judges can impose such punishments. • Shadow transport minister Bridget McKenzie apologises after admitting to failing to disclose 16 free flight upgrades between 2015 and 2024. • 7 November – Prime Minister Albanese confirms that the federal government will introduce legislation later in the month to ban young people under the age of 16 from using social media. • 10 November – Federal health minister
Mark Butler announces that under the
National Immunisation Program, pregnant women and newborn babies will have access free
respiratory syncytial virus vaccines before winter in 2025, with national access to
monoclonal antibody for young babies also to become available. • 11 November –
Remembrance Day services are held throughout the country, and Private
Richard Norden is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his exceptional bravery during the
Vietnam War. • 12 November – 31-year-old Connor Fuller is found guilty in the Newcastle Supreme Court of murdering 61-year-old Mark Tozer in a
road rage attack at
South West Rocks on the New South Wales
Mid North Coast on 28 July 2021. • 14 November –
Myer announces it has cancelled the traditional unveiling of its
Christmas windows in Melbourne's
Bourke Street Mall on 17 November to ensure the safety of its customers and employees due to the threat posed by a
pro-Palestinian group called Disrupt Wars which had planned to disrupt the event. • 16 November – The
2024 Black state by-election is held in South Australia, which was triggered by the resignation of
Liberal MP
David Speirs who had previously served as the
Opposition Leader. The Liberals lose the seat, with their candidate defeated by
Labor's
Alex Dighton. • 17 November –
Australian Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind rules that
Bunnings had breached the privacy of possibly hundreds of thousands of customers by trialing
facial recognition technology in 63 stores between 2018 and 2021, finding the company had collected sensitive information without consent and had failed to take reasonable steps to inform people about the technology. Bunnings responds by releasing CCTV footage of staff members being allegedly threatened and assaulted, with managing director Mike Schneider defending the use of the technology stating that its sole intent was to keep team members and customers safe. • 21 November – Multiple incidents of
antisemitic vandalism occur in Sydney which police describe as a
hate crime, and which Anthony Albanese calls "deeply troubling". • 24 November – The government withdraws a bill that would have allowed the
Australian Communications and Media Authority to impose a code of conduct or standards for social media companies amid criticism over its effects on free speech. • 26 November – 55-year-old former Western Australian state Labor MP
Barry Urban is allegedly assaulted by a 25-year-old customer at the
Kelmscott tyre business he manages following a verbal altercation. Urban suffers serious head injuries and is taken to
Royal Perth Hospital in a critical condition. • 29 November – • Federal parliament passes a law banning people under 16 years of age from holding social media accounts, including
YouTube,
Facebook,
Instagram,
WhatsApp, and
TikTok. • Following a lengthy legal battle,
police officer Ben Besant wins the right to have a suppression order and finally be named as the officer who killed
Man Haron Monis in the
Lindt Cafe siege, just weeks before the 10th anniversary of the siege is commemorated.
December • 3 December – The
Commonwealth Bank announces it intends to charge its customers a $3 fee to withdraw their own money at bank branches and post offices from January 2025 by migrating them from a "Complete Access" account to a "Smart Access" account. Following widespread criticism, the bank announces the following day that they will "pause" its plans to charge the fee to its customers for six months and will contact affected customers to discuss their options. • 6 December – The Adass Israel synagogue in
Melbourne catches fire in a
suspected arson attack. • 9 December – Queensland health minister
Tim Nicholls confirms an investigation has been launched after 323 live virus samples went missing in a major breach of biosecurity protocol at Virology Laboratory in 2021 in which vials of
Hendra virus,
lyssavirus and
hantavirus went missing after a freezer broke down. • 10 December –
Telstra is fined $3 million for failing to comply with emergency call procedures during a
Triple Zero outage on 1 March 2024 after the
Australian Communications and Media Authority found the company made 473 breaches during the incident. • 11 December – In what authorities describe as an "
antisemitic attack", multiple properties and vehicles in the Sydney suburb of
Woollahra are vandalised with anti-Israel graffiti. • 12 December – Federal Court judge David O'Callaghan rules that
Victorian Liberal Party leader
John Pesutto defamed former colleague
Moira Deeming by conveying an imputation she knowingly associated with
white supremacists and
neo-Nazis after she attended a "Let Women Speak" rally hosted by
Posie Parker on the steps of
Parliament House which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. Deeming was awarded $300,000 in damages. • 15 December – • Hundreds of protestors descend on Sydney's
Martin Place to call for an end to
antisemitism in Australia and to criticise the
federal government for their handling of the issue, following attacks in the Sydney suburb of
Woollahra and the suspected arson of the
Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne. • New South Wales premier
Chris Minns, local federal MP
Jason Clare and Jewish leaders have condemned
Islamophobic graffiti which appeared in the Sydney suburb of
Sefton. • In what is believed to be the largest mass
exhumation in Australian history, archaeologists finish unearthing and attempting to identify almost 2,000 bodies which were discovered under an old hockey field at
The Hutchins School in Hobart during building works. The human remains are transferred to new coffins and will be re-buried at
Cornelian Bay Cemetery in early 2025. • 19 December –
Jaclyn Symes becomes the first female
Treasurer of Victoria in a cabinet reshuffle following the departure of Tim Pallas. • 20 December – Approximately 20 men gather on the steps of
Parliament House in Melbourne and allegedly display an antisemitic banner which draws widespread condemnation. • 27 December – The
Victorian Liberal Party votes in the
2024 Victorian Liberal Party leadership spill.
Brad Battin replaces
John Pesutto as Liberal leader and leader of the opposition while
Sam Groth is appointed deputy leader.
Moira Deeming is readmitted to the parliamentary Liberal Party. ==Arts and entertainment==