16 January – Large parts of
Victoria are hit with power outages, including
Melbourne,
Geelong and
Bendigo, after bushfires knock out power transmission lines connecting the state to the national
electricity grid.[6]
23 January –
John Howard reshuffles his federal cabinet. Such changes include the sacking of the Immigration Minister,
Amanda Vanstone.[7]
26 January – Organisers of the
Big Day Out in Sydney plead with event-goers not to bring
Australian flags with them, fearing outbreaks of racial violence. The plea is ignored, and the day passes without incident.[8]
5 February – The first inquest into the deaths of the
Balibo Five begins.[10]
7 February –
James Hardie announces it has approved long-term compensation arrangements for
asbestos victims.[11]
11 February –
Prime MinisterJohn Howard causes a diplomatic stir when he publicly criticises U.S. presidential nominee
Barack Obama for his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from
Iraq.[12]
6 March – The Australian government approves a proposed
A$11.1 billion sale of the national airline
Qantas to an international consortium after the Foreign Investment Review Board finds that the sale would not breach foreign ownership laws.
9 March – Shadow Attorney-General
Kelvin Thomson resigns from the Opposition front bench after it is revealed that he wrote a positive character reference for Melbourne gangland figure and fugitive
Tony Mokbel six years ago.
14 March – An electrical fault on a
Northern Line train near the
Sydney Harbour Bridge strands 4,000 passengers on
Sydney's
CityRail train system for nearly three hours, and causes substantial delays during the evening rush hour.
16 March – Senator
Santo Santoro resigns as Minister for Ageing following a scandal involving his ownership of shares in a company related to his portfolio. He resigns from the Senate on 20 March.
18 March – More than 200,000 people walk across the
Sydney Harbour Bridge to celebrate its 75th anniversary.
23 March – Three people are killed when three trucks and four cars are involved in a major collision and explosion in
Melbourne's
Burnley Tunnel.
23 March – The
PlayStation 3 games console is released in Australia, exactly a year after the Australian release of
Microsoft's
Xbox 360.
10 April – Four elderly residents of the Broughton Hall nursing home in Melbourne die after a
gastroenteritis outbreak at the home over the Easter weekend. A fifth resident dies in hospital on 16 April.
19 April – Prime Minister
John Howard announces a report which states that unless significant rain falls in the
Murray-Darling Basin within the next six to eight weeks, Australia will face a major agricultural crisis with no irrigation allocations available to farmers.
24 April – Two Australian soldiers are injured when a roadside bomb goes off in
Iraq.
26 April – Former immigration minister Senator
Amanda Vanstone announces her immediate resignation from the
Australian Senate. It is announced later that day that Vanstone will take up the position of Australia's Ambassador to Italy in late June.
1 June – The Australian Government climate task force releases its report, recommending Australia implement an
emissions trading scheme by 2012. Prime Minister
John Howard declines to set a target for greenhouse gas reduction until after the 2007 election.[14]
5 June – Eleven people are killed, 12 seriously injured, 50 others wounded and 13 still missing after a
V/Line train
collides with a truck at a level crossing near
Kerang, Victoria.[15]
6 June – Fugitive
Tony Mokbel is recaptured in Greece after being missing since March 2006.[16]
8–10 June –
Major storms strike
New South Wales, killing at least nine people and causing major flooding. The coal freighter
Pasha Bulker is forced to run aground on Nobby's Beach, a major Newcastle beach.
21 June – After the release of a report into
child abuse and
domestic violence in
indigenous communities, the Prime Minister declares the situation a "national emergency" and announces a series of measures (most of which are controversial) to deal with the crisis.
25 June –
John Laws announces his retirement from radio after a career spanning 54 years.[21]
July
2 July – The
Pasha Bulker is refloated after 25 days aground.
2 July –
Thai Airways International flight TG999 arrives in Melbourne from
Bangkok, causing a health scare when one of the passengers is later diagnosed with
polio.[22]
3 July –
Wesfarmers announces a
A$22 billion takeover of the
Coles Group in the nation's largest ever corporate takeover.
30 July –
John Brumby and
Rob Hulls are elected unopposed as Premier and Deputy Premier of Victoria respectively, following the sudden resignation of
Steve Bracks and
John Thwaites.
27 August – The Australian Government releases a draft booklet of Australian facts and values from which 20 questions of a
citizenship test will be drawn. Applicants for citizenship will be required to score 12 out of 20 (60%) in the test to be eligible.[31]
13 September –
Anna Bligh is sworn in as Queensland's first female premier.
15 September – A three-year-old toddler,
Qian Xun Xue (nicknamed "Pumpkin" by authorities), is found wandering alone at Melbourne's
Southern Cross station. Police believe the child had arrived several days before from New Zealand, and that her father had fled to the United States.
4 October – The controversial
GunnsBell Bay Pulp Mill is given the go-ahead by federal Environment and Water Resources Minister
Malcolm Turnbull, with some conditions imposed on its development and with the Shadow minister for Environment and Water's backing.[32]
8–11 October – Severe thunderstorms have pounded South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales, with hailstones the size of tennis balls and destructive winds being recorded in
Brisbane,
Sunshine Coast,
Gold Coast and
Lismore.[33]
November
6 November – An Australian children's toy known as
Bindeez is recalled and a safety warning is issued after several children who had swallowed the beads were hospitalised suffering the symptoms of ingestion of
gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid or GHB. The toys are also recalled in the United States and United Kingdom after several U.S. children suffer the same effects.[34]
9 November – The Assistant Commissioner of
Victoria Police, Noel Ashby, resigns, after a long service.
9 February – The
Australian Football League signs a five-year broadcasting contract with the
Seven Network,
Network Ten and
pay TV provider
Foxtel, in a controversial deal that will see half of the AFL matches played each week broadcast on Foxtel instead of free-to-air television.
12 February –
Jodi Power, a family friend of convicted drug smuggler
Schapelle Corby, made allegations in a paid interview on
Channel Seven's Today Tonight that Corby's sister Mercedes had previously asked Power to transport drugs to Bali and that Mercedes had confessed to smuggling compressed cannabis concealed inside her body into Indonesia. Mercedes is interviewed by
Channel Nine's rival program A Current Affair on 14 February.
1 April – When it was announced on Weekend Sunrise, The
Seven Network pays $3 million for the broadcast rights to the fourth series of Kath & Kim, a popular sitcom which had previously aired until their final appearance on the
ABC in 2005/06 as Da Kath & Kim Code.
16 April – Australia's Leader of the Opposition
Kevin Rudd and Minister for Workplace Relations
Joe Hockey discontinue their weekly appearances on Seven's breakfast news program Sunrise after four years. The decision follows possibly politically-damaging accusations that Sunrise had requested that Rudd appear at a dawn service for
ANZAC Day in
Long Tan,
Vietnam, with the service held an hour early to accommodate the time difference for live television.[38]
1 June – The very last ever episode of Bert's Family Feud goes to air on the
Nine Network after an 18-month run. The show was axed due to the strong competition prize win of rival Seven Network game show Deal or No Deal.
23 July – Top-rating soap opera Neighbours makes a super international revamp over to continue its long-run on the
Network Ten.
19 August – Fourth series premiere of Kath & Kim at 7:30 pm, now on the
Seven Network, attracts an audience of 2.521 million nationally,[39] making it the most watched television programme so far in 2007[40] and the highest rating ever for a first episode in the history of Australian television.[39]
15 October –
Seven HD is introduced, becoming the first HD-only channel operated by a Melbourne-based commercial television network.
21 October – The
Nine Network includes the "
worm" audience reaction graph in their broadcast of the
election debate between
John Howard and
Kevin Rudd, despite agreements to the contrary. The
National Press Club cut Nine's transmission feed, and the
ABC cut their backup feed. Nine continued to transmit by adding the worm to the
Sky News broadcast.[41]
2 November –
Network Ten's news anchorperson
Charmaine Dragun is found dead near Sydney, apparently due to a suicide.
1 March – Jockey
Chris Munce is sentenced to 30 months imprisonment in Hong Kong for taking bribes in exchange for racing tips. His lawyers are appealing.
20 March –
West Coast Eagles midfielder
Ben Cousins is suspended indefinitely by his club after missing two days of training in a row. He later attends a four-week rehabilitation clinic in the United States.
31 March – Retired swimmer
Ian Thorpe is accused in French sports newspaper L'Equipe of having tested positive for abnormal levels of testosterone in May 2006.
FINA demands an investigation into the allegations, which Thorpe denies. Thorpe is eventually found to have no case to answer
23 August – A horse is diagnosed with
horse flu (equine influenza) in a quarantine station at
Eastern Creek. Further horses are diagnosed at the quarantine centre,
Centennial Park and outside New South Wales over the next few days, resulting in the cancellation of
race meetings Australia-wide and suspension of horse transportation for 72 hours on 25 August.[46]
23 September – Motorcycle racer
Casey Stoner gains an unbeatable lead in the
MotoGP world championships when he finished third in a race in Tokyo.[48]
29 September – The
Geelong Football Club (24.19.163) defeat
Port Adelaide (6.8.44) to win the 111th
VFL/AFL premiership. It is the first premiership since 1963 for the Cats, the first premiership won by a Victorian team since 2000 and the largest ever winning margin in VFL/AFL grand final history.