2015 in Australia


The following lists events that happened during 2015 in Australia.

Incumbents

January

  • 2–9 JanuaryBushfires in the Adelaide Hills and the outer Adelaide metropolitan area destroy 32 houses; and 125 outbuildings.
  • 5 January – Luke Foley is elected unopposed as Leader of the New South Wales Labor Party.
  • 6 January – Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, catches the state by surprise when he announces a 31 January election date—the shortest campaign period in the state's history.
  • 8 January – Prime Minister Tony Abbott, speaking from the Adelaide Hills, outlines plans for Commonwealth recovery payments for victims of the 2015 Sampson Flat bushfires, amounting to $4 million.
  • 10 January – A farewell is held at Cairns Convention Centre for the eight Cairns children who were killed in December. Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten are among the mourners.
  • 15 January – Federal Health Minister, Sussan Ley, announces that the proposed $20 cut to rebates for short consultations with GPs have been taken "off the table" four days before it was due to take effect.
  • 19 January – Queensland Police confirm that part of a skull found near at McGregor Creek in north Queensland is that of schoolgirl Marilyn Wallman, who vanished at the age of 14 while riding to school from the Mackay suburb of Eimeo in March 1972.
  • 24 January – The families of Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran make a televised plea for clemency against the death penalty.
  • 25 January – Rosie Batty is announced as Australian of the Year.
  • 26 January – Angus Houston and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh were appointed Knights of the Order of Australia in the 2015 Australia Day Honours.
  • 28 January – The High Court of Australia rules that the Federal Government acted legally in detaining 157 Tamil asylum seekers aboard a Customs boat.
  • 31 January – A state election is held in Queensland. The Labor Party led by Annastacia Palaszczuk forms a minority government with the support of an independent MP.

    February

  • 2 February
  • * Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles is replaced in a late night leadership challenge for the Country Liberal Party by Willem Westra van Holthe.
  • *Prime Minister Tony Abbott addresses the National Press Club in Canberra, announcing that the Federal Government is abandoning its paid parental leave proposal. The Prime Minister also clarifies that all awards of the Order of Australia, including knighthoods and damehoods will in future be exclusively the province of the Council of the Order of Australia.
  • 3 February
  • * Adam Giles refuses to resign as Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, and eventually negotiates to remain as leader, with Willem Westra van Holthe as his deputy.
  • *The Reserve Bank of Australia cuts the official cash rate for the first time since August 2013 by one quarter of a per cent to 2.25 per cent—an historic low—in an attempt to stimulate the economy amid concerns over a sharp fall in oil prices, rising unemployment and low consumer confidence.
  • *Two electrical contractors die and two are badly burned in a Perth shopping centre explosion.
  • 5 February – Journalist Peter Greste returns to Australia after 400 days in Egyptian detention having been freed on 1 February.
  • 7 February – After a six-year absence, Lawrence Springborg is again elected as Leader of Queensland's Liberal National Party, replacing Campbell Newman. John-Paul Langbroek is elected Deputy Leader, replacing Jeff Seeney.
  • 9 February –
  • *A motion to bring about a leadership spill in the Liberal Party of Australia is defeated 61 votes to 39.
  • *Surfer Tadashi Nakahara dies after a great white shark attack near Ballina, New South Wales and there are 13 other non-fatal attacks, predominantly in northern New South Wales.
  • 11 February – A report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014, is released. The report and the AHRC's president, Gillian Triggs, are subsequently criticised by Prime Minister Tony Abbott as "blatantly partisan".
  • 13 February – Patties Foods issues the first of several recalls of Nanna's brand frozen berries, after an outbreak of Hepatitis A caused by contaminated fruit.
  • 14 February – Annastacia Palaszczuk is sworn in as the 39th Premier of Queensland.
  • 16 February – The ABC program Four Corners airs allegations that live animals—including rabbits, piglets and possums—have been used as lures, or "live bait", while training dogs in the greyhound racing industry.
  • 18 February –
  • *Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces a $100 million upgrade to Flinders Street railway station in Melbourne, including a restoration of the station's iconic ballroom which has been closed since 1985.
  • *The United States Court of Military Commission Review strikes down David Hicks' March 2007 conviction for supporting terrorism.
  • 20 February –
  • *Category 4 cyclone, Cyclone Lam, makes landfall in the Northern Territory between Milingimbi and Elcho Island, the strongest cyclone to strike the Northern Territory since Cyclone Monica in 2006.
  • *Cyclone Marcia makes landfall in Queensland, damaging the city of Rockhampton and surrounds.
  • *Social Services Minister Scott Morrison releases the final report of the Productivity Commission's Inquiry into Childcare and Early Childhood Learning which recommends that the current child care system be abolished and replaced with a single subsidy available to nannies "to better meet the needs and budgets of families".
  • 23 February –
  • *Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivers a statement on national security outlining proposals to strip Australian citizenship from dual nationals found to be involved in terrorist acts and suspending some citizenship rights for others.
  • *Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris is stripped of his Australian honours.
  • 25 February – Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey announce the Government's planned response to increasing foreign investment, outlining plans to impose an application fee on foreign investors wishing to purchase established homes. The Prime Minister is criticised for using the VIP jet to fly from Canberra to Sydney for the 20-minute press conference during a Parliamentary sitting week.
  • 26 February – Qantas posts a half-year net profit of $203 million in massive turnaround for the airline. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce cites the repeal of the carbon tax as the main contributing factor.
  • 28 February – Former Governor-General Dame Quentin Bryce presents to the Premier of Queensland the report Not Now, Not Ever: Putting an End to Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland which proposes the introduction of a specialised domestic violence court and a new criminal offence of non-lethal strangulation.

    March

  • 3 March –
  • *Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley announces that the Government's plans to introduce a $5 General practitioner co-payment have been abandoned due to lack of community support.
  • *The Victorian CFA Training College is closed indefinitely after traces of PFOS are found in the site's water tanks. The closure follows years of claims that the site is a cancer cluster.
  • *Prime Minister Tony Abbott announces that Australia will send another 300 troops to Iraq to help train the Iraqi army in its fight against Islamic State.
  • 4 March –
  • *Prime Minister Tony Abbott announces that Australian defence force personnel will receive a pay rise of two per cent per year – an increase on the Government's earlier below-inflation offer of 1.5 per cent.
  • *Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces tough new laws and a $45.5 million plan to address Victoria's ice epidemic, including a boost to police to crush ice drug labs, as well as better access to rehabilitation and needle exchange programs.
  • 13 March – Australian jihadi Jake Bilardi, aged 18, dies carrying out a suicide-bombing attack in Iraq.
  • 20 March – The Lindt café in Sydney opens three months after the siege in which two of 17 hostages and gunman Man Haron Monis were killed.
  • 24 March – Two Australians are among 150 killed in the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps.
  • 26 March – Data retention laws require phone and Internet providers to store metadata for two years.
  • 28 March – A state election is held in New South Wales, and is won by the Coalition government led by Mike Baird.
  • 29 March – Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announces that the Member for Cook, Billy Gordon, has been expelled from the Labor Party over his failure to disclose elements of his past, including criminal convictions.