2005 in Australia


The following lists events that happened during 2005 in Australia.

Incumbents

January

  • 3 January – The Clean Ocean Foundation bans Victorian Premier Steve Bracks from Gunnamatta Beach over delays to upgrade a treatment plant that is allowing effluent to be dumped at sea.
  • 6 January –
  • *Australia becomes the single biggest aid donor to Indonesia, promising $1 billion to rebuild tsunami devastated regions, such as India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
  • *Federal Labor Leader Mark Latham has another bout of pancreatitis.
  • 8 January – Australian government pledged $20 million for tsunami relief effort in South and Southeast Asia.
  • 9 January – Australian Prime Minister John Howard addresses the nation to thank police, volunteers and defence personnel working to helping rebuild the region devastated by the 2004 Indonesian tsunami.
  • 11 January – Nine people are killed in bushfires in South Australia, making them the worst fires seen in Australia since Ash Wednesday, and until the Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009.
  • 17 January – West Australian Premier Geoff Gallop and the State Government decide to support a yes-yes vote in a referendum favouring extended late night and Sunday trading.
  • 18 January – Mark Latham quits as Federal Opposition Leader, resigns his seat in Parliament.
  • 28 January – The Australian Labor Party leadership spill, 2005 takes place. Kim Beazley is the only contender and is elected unopposed as leader of the Federal Labor Party and of the Federal Opposition.

    February

  • 8 February –
  • *Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone announces a closed inquiry to be headed by former AFP commissioner Mick Palmer, to investigate how Cornelia Rau came to be held in solitary confinement at Baxter Detention Centre and why she did not receive treatment despite having schizophrenia.
  • *Queensland Senator Santo Santoro raises the issue of abortion at the Coalition Party Room meeting in Canberra by circulating a policy paper with recommendations aimed at reducing the number of abortions, such as a Medicare-funded ultrasound for women contemplating an abortion, along with some Medicare-funded counselling.
  • 9 February – Queensland Premier Peter Beattie releases an edited transcript of an interview between Cornelia Rau and officers at the Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre on 5 July 2003.
  • 10 February –
  • *Queensland Premier Peter Beattie apologises for the failure of his agencies to properly care for Cornelia Rau.
  • *Local Government Minister Jim Lloyd denies allegations that his office was involved in a conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth over a one-and-a-half million dollar grant to dredge the Tumbi Creek on the New South Wales central coast.
  • 11 February – Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone admits that criminals who have finished their prison sentences and are awaiting deportation are being held among asylum seekers at the Baxter Detention Centre.
  • 13 February – Federal Treasurer Peter Costello breaks ranks with Prime Minister John Howard and says he and the government are sorry for the way Cornelia Rau was treated.
  • 19 February – Prime Minister John Howard and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark meet for talks.
  • 21 February – Health Minister Tony Abbott is reunited with what he believes to be his son, who was given up for adoption as a baby.
  • 24 February - the Nintendo DS is released in Australia.
  • 25 February – Parts of the Sydney suburb of Macquarie Fields erupt into rioting following the death of a 19-year-old in a police pursuit.
  • 26 February – The ALP government of Geoff Gallop is re-elected in Western Australia for a second term.
  • 27 February – Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone announces an extension of the Rau inquiry from original date of 24 March. Neil Comrie, the former Victorian Police Commissioner, is recruited to help Mick Palmer in the inquiry investigations.

    March

  • 9 March – Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone rejects the findings of a Senate report regarding the replacement of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
  • 17 March – News Limited newspapers report that Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot, while on a parliamentary tour to Iraq, smuggled US$20,000 into the country on behalf of Woodside Petroleum as a donation for the Kurdish government, having been issued with a pistol for personal security. The newspapers published photographs of Mr. Lightfoot appearing with Kurdish militants wielding an AK-47. Mr. Lightfoot strenuously denies the allegations and threatens legal action against the newspapers carrying the story.
  • 18 March – Prime Minister John Howard admits that Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot has changed his story regarding the Cash for Kurds affair.
  • 20 March –
  • *Prime Minister John Howard confirms that some aspects of the Federal Government's immigration detention policies are under review.
  • *Labor wins the seat of Werriwa.
  • 21 March – Federal Government backbenchers, churches and the Family First Party lobby for the Federal Government to relax its refugee policy for Christian converts, but Prime Minister John Howard announces that no special treatment will be given.
  • 22 March –
  • *Stuart Copeland, the Queensland Shadow Minister for Health, raises the issue of Doctor Jayant Patel's clinical practice during Question Time in the Queensland Parliament. Copeland had been alerted to Patel's inadequacies by Toni Hoffman, a nurse at the Bundaberg Base Hospital.
  • *Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott announces that his alleged long lost son is actually the son of another man, according to DNA testing.
  • 24 March – Prime Minister John Howard puts state Labor governments on notice to cut taxes or else, giving them four weeks to comply.
  • 25 March – Rob Messenger, the National Party Member of Parliament for Burnett, raises the matter of Doctor Jayant Patel in a speech to the Queensland Legislative Assembly. He calls for Patel's suspension.

    April

  • 2 April – The Shark 02 Royal Australian Navy Westland Sea King helicopter crashes off the coast of Nias, killing nine people.
  • 9 April – Queensland Health Minister Gordon Nuttall announces an inquiry into patient safety at Bundaberg Base Hospital in the wake of the "Dr Death" controversy at the hospital.
  • 11 April – Victorian Premier Steve Bracks unveils a plan to increase Melbourne's migration intake.
  • 14 April – Queensland Premier Peter Beattie unveils plans to build a rail tunnel under the Brisbane River.
  • 15 April – Prime Minister John Howard apologises for breaking his Medicare safety net election promise.
  • 17 April –
  • *The Bali Nine are arrested for drug smuggling in Indonesia
  • *In Darwin, Prime Minister John Howard farewells troops bound for Iraq.
  • 18 April - A fifteen-year-old known as "Tram Boy" allegedly stole a tram in Melbourne. Tram boy drove around on the network for 40 minutes before being stopped by police

    May

  • 1 May – Federal Treasurer Peter Costello warns of Liberal Party instability if John Howard does not hand over the Prime Ministership.
  • 2 May – Douglas Wood is taken hostage in Iraq. He is later rescued on 15 June.
  • 6 May – The scandal concerning the 2001 deportation the Philippines of Australian resident Vivian Solon first comes to light.
  • 19 May – Prime Minister John Howard admits he has no proof that a Muslim cleric spoke to Douglas Wood.
  • 23 May – The Morris Inquiry into the Queensland public hospital system begins in Brisbane.
  • 25 May – New South Wales Premier Bob Carr becomes the State's longest serving Premier.
  • 26 May – National Sorry Day is renamed National Day of Healing.
  • 27 May – Schapelle Corby convicted of drug smuggling by an Indonesian court, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

    June

  • 1 June –
  • *The Indonesian embassy is subjected to a bioterrorism hoax.
  • *Prime Minister John Howard stands by the Special Air Service Regiment against allegations in Time Magazine that Australian SAS soldiers killed innocent tribesmen in Afghanistan.
  • *The Federal Government announces an independent audit of airport security.
  • 3 June – The Council of Australian Governments meeting between the State Premiers and the Prime Minister is held. The Premiers agree to disagree with the Prime Minister on industrial relations, but make a commitment to the establishment of a national system of apprenticeships to address the skills shortage.
  • 8 June – Queensland Premier Peter Beattie announces approval for $60,000 in retrospective travel expenses for former Speaker Ray Hollis.
  • 28 June – Three suspects in a 2002 gang rape in Hurstville finally arrested in dawn raids in New South Wales.
  • 29 June – Rain brings drought relief and flooding across New South Wales.
  • *New South Wales Supreme Court finds no evidence of neglect against Westmead Hospital in the Rhiannon Richards brain damage suit, leaving her family to pay both sides' legal costs.
  • *New South Wales health authorities warn parents of an outbreak of whooping cough across the state, urging parents to immunise their children.
  • *Former Federal Labor Opposition Leader, Mark Latham's autobiography is released, causing uproar in the Australian Labor Party.