分类： society

A shocking violent assault in suburban Melbourne has left a 60-year-old retail employee fighting for his life, sending ripple effects through debates over frontline worker safety just days after Victoria’s new state government pledged urgent action to protect retail staff. The incident unfolded just after 2 p.m. this past Saturday on Hampshire Road in the suburb of Sunshine, when two store workers approached four teenagers whom they suspected of shoplifting from the retail outlet. What began as an intervention quickly escalated into a physical confrontation outside the store, with the 60-year-old staff member bearing the brunt of the violence. He sustained severe, life-threatening injuries in the altercation and was rushed immediately to Royal Melbourne Hospital, where medical teams have kept him in critical condition.

Hospital spokespeople confirmed Monday that the worker’s condition remains unchanged and critical, as the community waits for updates on his recovery. Local law enforcement has since taken all four teenagers suspected in the attack into custody. The group — two boys aged 13 and 15, a 14-year-old girl, and a 15-year-old girl — come from the Brimbank and Banyule areas of Melbourne. As of the latest update, detectives have not yet conducted formal interviews with the detained teens, and investigations into the full circumstances of the attack are ongoing.

The assault comes at a particularly charged moment for retail safety policy in Victoria, coming just days after new Premier Ben Carter took office and used his debut press conference to prioritize new protections for frontline retail and service workers. Carroll, who began his own working career as a frontline staff member at discount retailer Kmart, announced the rollout of a new policy tool called Workplace Protection Orders (WPOs), modeled after the existing Apprehended Violence Orders (AVOs) already used to protect people from repeat abuse. WPOs will grant authorities the power to restrict or completely bar access to workplaces for people who have a history of violent or abusive behavior toward frontline retail and service staff, addressing growing calls for stronger action after a string of high-profile attacks on Australian retail workers in recent months.

A violent attempted car theft targeting a rideshare driver in suburban Perth has left one 15-year-old boy facing multiple serious criminal charges, with Western Australia Police still hunting for a second suspect involved in the Thursday afternoon attack.

According to official statements from WA Police, the incident unfolded when the driver picked up two young male passengers from the suburb of Balga, located in Perth’s northern corridor. As the trip progressed, the pair began threatening the driver, with the 15-year-old suspect brandishing oleoresin capsicum (OC) pepper spray during the confrontation.

The driver managed to escape the vehicle when the group stopped at a service station in the nearby suburb of Greenwood. But law enforcement alleges the teen suspect did not stop there: he followed the fleeing driver out of the car and deployed the pepper spray directly against him, leaving the driver physically affected by the chemical irritant.

After the attack, both suspects fled the scene on foot. However, police tactical and patrol units quickly established a search perimeter, and the 15-year-old was taken into custody only a short distance away in Balga, within hours of the incident.

The teen has been formally charged with four criminal offenses: aggravated armed robbery, attempted theft of a motor vehicle, criminal threats to commit an unlawful act, and administering a harmful poison. He was scheduled to make his first court appearance at the Perth Children’s Court on Saturday.

Investigations remain active, as police have not yet located the second male suspect connected to the attack. WA Police have issued a public appeal for any community members who may have witnessed the incident, or who hold private dashcam, CCTV or phone footage from the Balga and Greenwood areas on Thursday afternoon, to contact Crime Stoppers immediately with any information that could help advance the case.

In the harsh, glaciated terrain of northern Pakistan’s Karakoram Range, rescue operations have restarted for seven climbers missing following a devastating avalanche that hit an international expedition on Broad Peak, one of the world’s highest 8,000-metre mountains. As of Saturday, three bodies have been recovered from the avalanche site, with more suspected visible in aerial drone footage. The disaster unfolded on Thursday, when the 10-member expedition, led by acclaimed British-Nepali climber Nirmal Purja, was ascending to the summit of the 8,047-metre peak at roughly 6,600 metres above sea level. Contact with the full team was lost immediately after the avalanche struck, and Purja is among the seven still unaccounted for. The three remains recovered so far, airlifted by military helicopter for formal identification, include an American woman, an Omani woman, and a Nepali man, per a statement released late Friday by the regional Government of Gilgit-Baltistan. Severe, unpredictable high-altitude weather forced rescue teams to suspend search efforts on Friday, but operations resumed Saturday for a second consecutive day of searching. High-altitude porters, local specialized rescuers, and Pakistani army personnel are leading the operation, supported by military helicopters that have been scouring the avalanche-prone slope. Rescue teams stayed overnight at Broad Peak’s base camp to maintain progress on the mission, and officials confirmed that drone imagery has already detected additional suspected bodies on the mountainside. “The rescue operation is being conducted under extremely challenging terrain and high-altitude weather conditions by the Pakistani army in coordination with local high-altitude climbers and rescuers,” the regional government statement noted. According to data from the climbers’ personal tracking devices, the force of the avalanche swept the missing climbers hundreds of metres down the slope, explained Naila Kiani of Pakistan’s Alpine Club in an interview with French outlet Le Monde. The expedition included 10 members from five countries: Purja himself, five Nepali climbers, one Pakistani, one Omani, one American, and one climber from China. The team made their last confirmed contact with outside parties on Thursday morning, and news of the avalanche began to circulate later that same day. For 43-year-old Purja, the expedition was part of a historic climbing quest: he had announced publicly on social media platform X earlier this week that he was on the cusp of becoming the first person to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre “super peaks” twice without using supplemental oxygen. “Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down,” he wrote in his final post before the avalanche. Before becoming a full-time professional mountaineer and expedition guide, Purja served 10 years in the British military, including service with the Brigade of Gurkhas and the Royal Marines’ Special Boat Service. Since turning to professional climbing, he has broken dozens of mountaineering records, most famously his 2019 expedition that saw him summit all 14 8,000-metre peaks in just six months and six days – a feat that set a new world record at the time. Broad Peak, first successfully summited by an Austrian expedition in 1957, ranks as the 12th highest mountain on Earth. It is widely regarded by the climbing community as one of the most technically challenging and dangerous of all 8,000-metre ascents, prone to sudden avalanches and unpredictable severe weather.

When New Zealand’s nationwide ban on commercial greyhound racing comes into force this Saturday, a little-known chapter of the industry’s final days will play out across the Tasman Sea: at least two chartered flights carrying up to 150 retired racing greyhounds are bound for eastern Australian states, where the sport remains largely legal, allowing the small number of remaining New Zealand trainers to continue their careers.

The ban, first announced in December 2024 and formally legislated this past April, mandates the full shutdown of greyhound racing across New Zealand, requiring roughly 1,400 dogs from the industry to be rehomed as pets over the coming years. Greyhound Racing New Zealand (GRNZ), the sport’s former governing body in the country, confirmed to the BBC that a small group of local trainers are choosing to relocate their dogs to Australia rather than retire their animals, keeping the racing practice alive for a subset of the national herd.

New Zealand’s decision to end greyhound racing followed three independent reviews conducted in 2013, 2017, and 2021. Racing Minister Winston Peters’ spokesperson explained that while the industry had made incremental improvements to animal welfare standards, the injury and mortality rates among racing greyhounds remained unacceptably high, meaning the sector had irrevocably “lost its social licence” to operate in the country. Peters’ office called the planned relocation of racing dogs to Australia “the last gasp actions of a dying industry,” adding that the vast majority of the 1,300 to 1,400 affected greyhounds will be rehomed in New Zealand over the next two years, and the cross-border relocation of a small number of dogs is a one-time final event rather than an ongoing flow. GRNZ has disputed the government’s findings on welfare outcomes, with chief executive Edward Rennell insisting to the BBC that New Zealand greyhound racing already maintained the highest animal welfare standards of any professional racing code in the country.

Under current Australian import rules, all dogs entering the country from New Zealand are classified as companion animals and must undergo mandatory biosecurity screening for diseases including rabies. Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry clarified to a Senate inquiry in June that import requirements are set based on biosecurity risk, regardless of the animal’s intended future use. The department declined to provide additional comment to the BBC for this report.

Rennell told the BBC that between 6 and 10 New Zealand trainers have expressed interest in relocating to Australia, noting that most New Zealand citizens do not require special visas to move and work in Australia. Final logistics for the chartered flights are set to be confirmed over the next two weeks, with GRNZ covering the full cost of air travel and owners and trainers responsible for all other relocation expenses. Rennell added that while the imported dogs will continue racing in Australia, their competitive edge is likely limited: New Zealand greyhound breeding operations largely paused immediately after the ban was announced 18 months ago, leaving the current generation of dogs less optimized for top-tier professional racing.

This is not the first wave of New Zealand racing greyhounds moving to Australia: officials confirmed an initial 80 greyhounds were exported to Queensland on a chartered flight back in April 2025, after the ban was formally passed into law. Simon Stout of Greyhounds Australasia told a Tasmanian parliamentary hearing this week that one relocated New Zealand trainer and their family were drawn to the “shining lights of the new facility” west of Brisbane.

GRNZ has identified existing kennel facilities across Queensland, New South Wales (NSW), and Victoria as potential destinations for the dogs. The Queensland Racing Integrity Commission confirmed it has been formally notified by GRNZ of the impending arrival of greyhounds and possible relocation of industry participants. Officials in NSW and Victoria stated they have not received notification of specific relocation plans in their jurisdictions, adding that greyhounds are legally permitted to cross jurisdictional borders for racing purposes within Australia.

Animal welfare advocates have raised sharp alarm over the relocation, noting that Australia already faces a widespread crisis placing retired racing greyhounds. Kylie Field, director of the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds, pointed out that New South Wales alone currently has more than 4,100 retired greyhounds waiting for permanent homes, and the Australian industry has already been sending thousands of retired dogs to the United States and Canada to ease domestic rehoming backlogs – more than 2,000 have been shipped overseas to date. Federal Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi told the BBC she is deeply concerned about regulatory loopholes that allow the ongoing export of racing greyhounds into Australia, saying neither New Zealand nor Australian authorities have taken meaningful action to address the welfare risks.

Australia’s greyhound racing industry is vastly larger and more commercially valuable than New Zealand’s ever was: the latest Greyhounds Australasia data shows that the Queensland, NSW, and Victorian industries collectively generated nearly A$2 billion in revenue in 2022-2023, dwarfing New Zealand’s peak total of NZ$147 million. Kiwi gamblers are still legally permitted to place bets on Australian greyhound racing even after the domestic ban takes effect. Currently, greyhound racing is only banned in the Australian Capital Territory, and Tasmania has passed legislation to phase out the sport entirely. Globally, Scotland and Wales outlawed commercial greyhound racing earlier this year, and most U.S. states have banned the practice, leaving just two active tracks in West Virginia.