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Annika Smethurst

Annika Smethurst

Annika Smethurst is the Victorian affairs editor for The Age.

The Australians most likely to die from accidental drug overdoses

For the first time since records began, accidental fatality rates are being driven by this middle-aged group.

  • Annika Smethurst

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Wind turbines near Ballan in Western Victoria where renewables policies are brewing as an election issue

Wind farm plan tipped to risk billions in energy investment and 26,000 jobs

An analysis estimates the Coalition’s proposed policy would put $3.9 billion in local wages and more than $200 million in landholder and community payments at risk.

  • Annika Smethurst
Victoria Police backed Ken Lay’s recommendation to cap the number of guns a person could own.

Clean mental health checks for gun owners should follow Bondi, suicide: coroner

As the Allan government prepares to strengthen the state’s firearms laws, a Victorian coroner wants gun owners to provide medical evidence proving their fitness to hold a licence.

  • Annika Smethurst
Senator Bridget McKenzie at an estimates hearing on Monday.

Senator billed taxpayers for trip that included son’s engagement party

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie took a work trip to north-west Tasmania on the same weekend that her son celebrated his engagement party in the region.

  • Annika Smethurst
Bridget McKenzie at her son’s wedding in Tasmania.

Senator billed public to attend son’s wedding

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie billed taxpayers for flights and accommodation to Tasmania before and after her son’s wedding in the Tamar Valley.

  • Annika Smethurst
Data shows most students whose visa appeals were finalised in the latest six-week period were successful.

When university students reported more bad behaviour, harassment and bullying decreased

While the overall number of reports is on the rise, interventions around uncomfortable behaviour, inappropriate remarks or troubling group dynamics is stopping serious misconduct in its tracks.

  • Annika Smethurst
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Nick Coatsworth

Former top medical officer calls for cut to tobacco taxes

Dr Nick Coatsworth is preparing to call the flourishing illegal tobacco market a “whole-of-government policy failure” at a Senate inquiry into Australia’s tobacco crisis.

  • Chris Vedelago and Annika Smethurst
Jess Wilson’s social media strategy is central to her plan to defeat Jacinta Allan at November’s state election.

‘She scrolls’: The trick to Jess Wilson’s low-budget social media ploy

The digital battleground will be central to deciding the state election, and while the opposition leader has fewer followers than Jacinta Allan, she is trying to gain the upper hand.

  • Annika Smethurst
Gayle Smith at the The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

Jewish aged care homes hire armed guards as police briefing warns of antisemitism

Holocaust survivors are now being protected by security after a bomb threat, hate mail and threats to kill were directed at three homes managed by Jewish Care Victoria.

  • Annika Smethurst and Grant McArthur
ISIS brides Sydney Airport GIF

Australia news as it happened: IS-linked families return to Australia; Labor announces gas reservation policy; Possible Jeffrey Epstein suicide note unsealed by US federal judge

Australian Federal Police have confirmed the arrest of three of the four returning IS-linked women who touched down with a group of children on flights that landed in both Melbourne and Sydney.

  • Daniel Lo Surdo, Annika Smethurst and Emily Kaine