2024 in Australia


The following is a list of events that occurred in the year 2024 in Australia.

Incumbents

Monarch
Governor-General
Prime Minister
[Deputy Prime Minister of Australia|Prime Minister of Australia|Deputy Prime Minister]
Opposition Leader
'''Chief Justice'''

State and territory leaders

Governors and administrators

Events

January

February

March

April

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 WAPOL of repeatedly ignoring her requests for help with her father. Federal social services minister Amanda Rishworth also describes the response from WAPOL 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

July

  • 1 July –
  • * The Australian Government raises the visa fee for international students from A$710 to A$1,600 in an attempt to curb record levels of migration claimed to exacerbate pressure on the Australian housing market.
  • * 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

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.
  • 10 September – Thousands of protestors attend a national farmer rally in Canberra where the agricultural sector accuses the federal government of initiating numerous anti-farming policies.
  • 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.
  • *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. Among the five union officials to be fined was the MEU's current national vice-president Stephen Smyth who receives an $85,680 fine.
  • *At a senate inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses, the University of Sydney's vice-chancellor Mark Scott issues an apology to Jewish students and staff after reading testimonials detailing their experiences during the eight-week Students for Palestine protest, stating "I have failed them and the university has failed them."
  • 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.
  • 4 October – Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton calls on the expulsion of Iran's ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi after Sadeghi describes assassinated terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah as an "unparalleled leader" and a "martyr". Prime minister Anthony Albanese also condemns Sadeghi's comments.
  • 5 October – South Australia Police confirm former South Australian opposition leader David Speirs has been charged with two counts of supplying a controlled substance. Spiers says he intends to fight to clear his name and plans to resign from parliament during the next sitting week.
  • 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.
  • 8 October –
  • *Jacob Hersant of the National Socialist Network becomes the first Victorian to be found guilty of performing a Nazi salute.
  • *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.
  • 10 October – A sexual abuse survivor who was one of many to be abused by convicted paedophile Darrell Ray 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 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.
  • 31 October – Amid the ongoing free flight upgrade scandal, opposition leader Peter Dutton admits he had requested whether he could use Gina Rinehart's private jet to fly from Rockhampton to Sydney for a Bali bombings memorial service before travelling back up to Mackay. Dutton claims he had asked to use the jet to save taxpayers the $40,000 it would have cost to use an RAAF aircraft.

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. Hanson vows to appeal the judgement.
  • *Amid the ongoing flight upgrade scandal, Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie concedes she was wrong to initially be so "emphatic" in her denial of never having received any free flight upgrades.
  • *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. The 25-year-old man subsequently faces Armadale Magistrates Court on five charges relating to the alleged assault. Urban dies on 15 February 2025 from the injuries he sustained in the alleged assault.
  • 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

Arts and entertainment

January

February

March

April

May

June

  • 3 June – The Fair Work Commission finds that journalist Antoinette Lattouf was sacked by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation when she was taken off air while she was a fill-in host on ABC Radio Sydney's Mornings program in December 2023. The Fair Work Commission rejected the ABC's claim that Lattouf wasn't sacked as she had been paid for the full week.
  • 7 June –
  • *Laura Jones wins the 2024 Archibald Prize for her portrait of Tim Winton, while Naomi Kantjuriny wins the Sulman Prize for Minyma mamu tjuta and Djakaŋu Yunupiŋu wins the Wynne Prize for Nyalala gurmilili.
  • *The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and Sky News Australia issue public apologies to Miriki Performing Arts, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child dancers and Aboriginal elder David Mundraby after a 2019 photo of Indigenous children performing at the Cairns Children's Festival was used without permission in an unrelated story about child sexual abuse on 17 October 2023.
  • 8 June – Attendees of Vivid Sydney's Love is in the Air drone show claim they felt trapped after a larger than expected amount of spectators gathered at Circular Quay to watch.
  • 12 June – It's reported News Corp Australia will be making up to 40% of its sales staff redundant amidst a corporate restructure of the company.
  • 15 June – American comedian Jerry Seinfeld commences a national tour, with the first of his seven Australian stand up shows held in Perth. At some of his Australian shows, Seinfeld encounters pro-Palestine protestors.
  • 16 June – Through his lawyers, Robert Irwin threatens production company StepMates Studios with legal action if a two-minute cartoon they produced for Pauline Hanson's One Nation's YouTube Channel is not taken down. Depicting Irwin guiding Bluey on a mock tour of Queensland, Irwin's lawyers claim the cartoon is defamatory and features the unauthorised and deceptive use of Irwin's image. However, Pauline Hanson defends the cartoon and indicates that it won't be taken down.

July

August

September

  • 2 September – Model and actress Elle MacPherson reveals that after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, she refused chemotherapy and opted for "an intuitive, heart-led, holistic approach". Her comments draw widespread condemnation.
  • 6-15 September - SWELL Sculpture Festival is held at Currumbin Beach, Queensland.
  • 8 September – Nicole Kidman is awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 81st Venice International Film Festival but leaves Venice before accepting the award upon learning her mother Janelle Kidman had died.
  • 15 September – Elizabeth Debicki wins the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards.
  • 20 September – The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's managing director David Anderson orders an independent review into how audio featured in a September 2022 online article and 7.30 story came to be "incorrectly edited", after the Seven Network airs allegations claiming the ABC added additional gunshots to incorrectly illustrate former special forces major Heston Russell had committed war crimes. In 2023, Russell won a defamation case against the ABC which was ordered to pay Russell $390,000 after they failed to prove its reporting was in the public interest.
  • 27 September –
  • *A tribunal decision which would have allowed men to enter a space designated as "women only" at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart is quashed and sent back to the tribunal for consideration. The decision comes after a New South Wales man originally won the anti-discrimination case against MONA in March after having been denied entry to the women's only "Ladies Lounge" area.
  • *As the station prepares to "take a new direction", Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine sign off from 4BC's breakfast program in Brisbane for the final time, two years after they moved to the station upon the closure of 4KQ.

October

November

December

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Country overviews