A Guardian Australia investigation has revealed that impoverished Australians, including rough sleepers, migrants and veterans, are being buried in unmarked communal graves, a practice described by grieving relatives as “unspeakable”. Most of these graves hold the remains of four or more people.
Burial practices under scrutiny
The investigation found that hundreds of people across New South Wales are being buried in unmarked and communal graves, with friends and relatives often unaware. The practice has outraged the homelessness sector and shocked relatives and friends of the dead, who say they were denied the chance to intervene and fund a proper burial.
Peter Giesel died as a “person without means”, a designation that gives state governments control over an individual’s burial or cremation. His close friend, Elaine Grady, was shocked to learn of his fate when contacted by the Guardian: “How could such a heartless thing happen to someone who gave so much of his heart to others?”
Greens propose supermarket nationalisation
More than 200 Coles and Woolworths supermarkets would be nationalised and hundreds of government-owned grocery stores opened under a $25bn proposal put forward by former Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather, channelling a similar scheme pioneered by New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
Other news highlights
Anthony Albanese landed in Fiji yesterday to attend his first UN climate summit since becoming prime minister more than four years ago. With only two non-Pacific leaders among the 4,000 people in Nadi for the preparatory meeting for the year-ending Cop31 UN climate summit in Turkey, it was something of a mixed start.
Jewish Australians will mark the third anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Wednesday as Labor state governments condemn pro-Palestinian vigils to be held the same day. OpenAI must explain how they will stop their models from inappropriately accessing Australian data, the Labor chair of the parliament’s committee on AI has warned ahead of federal inquiry hearings to grill tech bosses.
France is bracing for a national day of protests and high-school blockades on Tuesday as a youth protest movement gathers pace amid a growing debate about the police response after a 15-year-old protester had his hand blown off in Lens. Several hospitals in Siberia have been placed under quarantine after the death of a woman who worked at an anti-plague institute – reportedly after an accident at the laboratory.
Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has staked his future on a snap general election announced after rightwing parties torpedoed his plan to fix the country’s housing crisis. Flávio Bolsonaro is in pole position to win Brazil’s presidential election, after a surge of far-right support propelled him to a shock first-round victory over the incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Women report suffering more pain than men, a major global study has found, with women’s self-reported pain across 11 bodily sites – head, face, neck or shoulder, foot or ankle, hand or wrist, elbow, chest, back, stomach or abdomen, hip and knee – higher than for men.
Sport and other updates
South Africa’s stunning Test victory in 2018 was overshadowed by the scale of national angst felt in Australia after the team’s sandpaper ball-tampering scandal. Daniel Gallan looks back as Australia prepare to tour for the first time since.
Daniil Medvedev was disqualified from his China Open semi-final with Novak Djokovic on Monday after hitting a rebounding ball into the crowd that struck a spectator in the eye. Formula One bosses look amateurish and incompetent after the farcical scenes at the beginning of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday.
The treasury secretary has asked staff to inform on colleagues suspected of leaking, according to the Australian. Federal Liberals say One Nation’s call to jail former Victorian premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan exposes the risk of handing power to Pauline Hanson, the Age reports.
