Australia in March 2026: the most important developments in society
In Australia in March 2026, the most covered event was the heckling of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at an Eid event at a Sydney mosque on 20 March. He was heckled and booed, and protesters chanted and called him a 'genocide supporter' over his government's stance on Israel's actions in Gaza. He was escorted from the area but later described the prayers as 'incredibly positive'. Minister Tony Burke was also shouted at. Earlier in the month, on 10 March, Australia granted humanitarian visas to five members of the Iranian women's national football team amid reported safety concerns; protesters blocked the team's bus, and the team left Australia without the five players. By 20 March other Iranian women footballers had returned home without seeking asylum.
Floods and a cyclone shaped the month. Flooding hit towns in Victoria from 1 March after a rain record was broken, and Katherine in the Northern Territory had its worst flooding in 28 years, with remote communities evacuated and Australian Defence Force personnel arriving on 16 March. The Bureau of Meteorology recorded the wettest summer in nearly a decade. Tropical Cyclone Narelle made landfall in Queensland on 19 March, causing flooding, mine closures and power outages, then brought rain to the Northern Territory. It re-formed off Western Australia on 24 March, and by 26 March a Category 4 cyclone was moving along the state's coast. Bushfires burned in New South Wales in late March.
Staff at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation held a 24-hour strike on 25 March, the first at the broadcaster in two decades, over pay, conditions and changes to content production and job security. Rising fuel costs were reported to be driving a surge in demand for emergency relief payments, and waste collectors warned that bin services could stop without diesel. Workers at Glencore's copper refinery in Queensland planned a strike after pay talks failed, and the Senate censured a senator over comments about Muslims.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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