2000 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 2000 in Australia.

2000 in Australia
MonarchyElizabeth II
Governor-GeneralSir William Deane
Prime ministerJohn Howard
Population19,153,000

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 2000
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Decades:
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
  • 2020s
See also:

Incumbents
Sir William Deane
John Howard

State and Territory Leaders

Governors and Administrators

Events

January
  • 1 January
    • Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic releases Care Australia worker Branko Jeken from imprisonment in Serbia.
    • The National Archives releases 1969 Cabinet documents.
    • Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar returns home to Pakistan after the ICC rules that his bowling action during a recent match was illegal.
  • 2 January – A massive oil spill occurs off the coast of Phillip Island, endangering the region's penguin population.
  • 3 January – When Federal Justice Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone is asked whether alleged Nazi war criminal Konrad Kalejs would be welcome when he arrived in Australia in the coming days, she replies, "Would you expect a situation where any Australian citizen would not be?", an answer which caused much controversy.[1]
  • 7 January – Alleged Nazi war criminal Konrad Kalejs returns to Australia, arriving at Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne, and met by a barrage of protesters.
  • 8 January – Queensland Labor Member for Woodridge, Bill D'Arcy resigns from Queensland Parliament due to the controversy caused by the Net Bet scandal.[2]
  • 10 January – CASA issues an Airworthiness Directive which grounds all aircraft after being advised the day before that more contaminants had been found in fuel produced at Mobil's Altona refinery in Melbourne.[3]
  • 11 January
    • Australia's biggest ecstasy haul is discovered in Brisbane and seven are arrested.
    • Another 83 asylum seekers arrive in Darwin
    • Australian troops return home from East Timor
    • A commuter train derails in Hornsby, Sydney.[4]
  • 12 January – Leonard Fraser is committed to stand trial over the murder of Rockhampton schoolgirl Keyra Steinhardt.
  • 21 January – Former Queensland Labor MP, Bill D'Arcy, is named as the political figure facing child-sex charges. He is committed to the District Court on 49 charges relating to his career as a school teacher.[5]

February
  • 5 February
  • 9 February – A 15–year–old Aboriginal boy, who was imprisoned for 28 days for stealing stationery, commits suicide in a Northern Territory prison, sparking controversy about the mandatory sentencing laws of the Territory and neighboring Western Australia.[8]
  • 16 February – 21–year–old Jamie Wurramara, who stole $23 worth of biscuits on Christmas Day 1999, is sentenced to a year in jail under the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing laws, prompting a wave of protests around the nation.[9]
  • 25 February – The Federal Opposition calls on Aged Care Minister Bronwyn Bishop to resign after revelations she waited four weeks to act on reports that elderly residents of the Riverside Nursing Home were given kerosene baths in an effort to rid them of scabies, a skin rash.[10]
  • 29 February – Katherine Knight murders her partner John Price by stabbing him 37 times in Aberdeen, New South Wales. She proceeded to decapitate, skin and cook the victim in a crime that shocked the country.[11] Sydney Olympics also happened on that day.

March
  • 16 March – A nationwide recall of Herron headache tablets is ordered after a Brisbane doctor and his 18–year–old son are hospitalised with strychnine poisoning.
  • 18 March – Herron offers a $250,000 reward to try to find out who tampered with its paracetamol products. A 32–year–old Brisbane man is subsequently arrested.
  • 20 March – Queensland Premier Peter Beattie announces that State Cabinet has approved a $30 million deal to exclude trawling from 35 percent of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and reduce the fish catch from the reef by 15 percent.[12]
  • 25 March – Brisbane City Council election - Jim Soorley is elected for a fourth term as Lord Mayor of Brisbane, defeating Liberal candidate Gail Austen.[13]

April
  • 6 April – Train carriages derail at Redfern, Sydney. No passengers are involved.
  • 10 April – Prime Minister John Howard reaches agreement with the Northern Territory Chief Minister Denis Burke on mandatory sentencing. In exchange for Commonwealth funding, the Territory's laws will be changed to give diversionary programmes as a substitute for jail time to children accused of minor crimes. Police will have discretion to give children who've committed more serious crimes access to these programmes.[14]
  • 27 April – Four elderly people, between the ages of 65 to 88, are hospitalised after catching the potentially fatal Legionnaire's disease at the new Melbourne Aquarium in what became Victoria's worst outbreak of the disease with possible exposure to up to 10,000 people.[15]

May

June

July

August
  • 10 August – Beginning of the Sydney gang rapes by a group from up to fourteen men.
  • 15 August – Queensland Attorney–General Matt Foley announces that the Government has ordered an independent investigation into allegations of widespread electoral rorting within the Queensland Labor Party.[17]
  • 17 August – It is announced that the current Queensland Assistant Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson will replace Jim O'Sullivan as Police Commissioner when he retires on 31 October.[18]

September

October
  • 10 October – It is revealed that Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith has incurred almost $50,000 on a taxpayer-funded Telecard for a service he says he hasn't used for years, but which he admits he gave to his son.[19]

November
  • 1 November – Former Queensland Labor MP Bill D'Arcy is found guilty of 18 child sex charges committed while he was a school teacher.[20]
  • November – New South Wales suffers its worst floods in 40 years, with 240 cm of rain falling in one week.
  • 22 November – Jim Elder resigns as Queensland Deputy Premier, citing allegations of electoral rorting within the Labor Party currently under investigation by the Shepherdson Inquiry.[21]

Arts and literature

Film

Television
  • 1 January – The Seven Network introduces a new logo to celebrate the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the first one not to have the 7 inside a circle.
  • February – Popstars becomes the first Australian reality talent show, earns massive ratings for the Seven Network & leads to Bardot, the end product of the show, becoming the first Australian act to debut at no.1 on the ARIA charts,
  • September – The Sydney Olympics earn record ratings for Channel 7 with the Olympic Opening & Closing Ceremonies & its continuous coverage.

Sport

Births

Deaths

See also

References
  1. Head, Mike (17 January 2000). "Australia a "safe haven" for Nazi war criminals". World Socialist Web Site.
  2. "Showdown - Double election puts Beattie to test". The Sunday Mail. 9 January 2000.
  3. "Avgas Fuel Contamination". Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  4. McInerney, Peter Aloysius (April 2001). "Special Commission of Inquiry into the Glenbrook Rail Accident" (PDF). Parliament of New South Wales.
  5. "D'Arcy on sex charges". The Courier-Mail. 22 January 2000.
  6. "Labor Safe – ALP survives voter anger". The Courier-Mail. 6 February 2000.
  7. "Plea to find attackers as cyclist fights for life". The Courier-Mail. 10 February 2000.
  8. "Mandatory sentencing death".
  9. "Man jailed for stealing biscuits worth $23". The Courier-Mail. 17 February 2000.
  10. "Bishop under fire over elderly". The Courier-Mail. 26 February 2000.
  11. BROWN, JESSICA (6 August 2015). "Filmmaker looks at the grisly Hunter murder of John Price - PHOTOS".
  12. "State in $30m trawling offer". The Courier-Mail. 21 March 2000.
  13. "Lord Jim's Juggernaut". The Sunday Mail. 26 March 2000.
  14. "Deal struck on mandatory sentencing".
  15. "Germ Scare". Herald Sun. 28 April 2000.
  16. "Howard stands firm after reconciliation walk". Archived from the original on 3 March 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  17. "State seeks inquiry on electoral rort claims". The Courier-Mail. 16 August 2000.
  18. "New police chief cops it sweet as praise rolls in". The Courier-Mail. 18 August 2000.
  19. "Reith breaks phone perk rule". The Courier-Mail. 11 October 2000.
  20. "D'Arcy raped schoolgirls". The Courier-Mail. 2 November 2000.
  21. "Queensland's Deputy Premier resigns amid CJC inquiry".
  22. "Ten News". TVQ 10 (Channel 10 Brisbane). 14 January 2000.
  23. "Artistic Gymnastics | Athlete Profile: Emily WHITEHEAD - Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games". results.gc2018.com. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
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