Editing 2001 in Australia (section)

==Events==

===January===
*1 January – A ceremony at [[Uluru]] ([[Henry Ayers|Ayers]] Rock) and a parade in Sydney kick off a year of celebrations to mark the [[1901|centenary]] of [[Federation of Australia|federation]].
*8 January – Immigration Minister [[Philip Ruddock]] explains on Iranian television the hazards of illegal migration to Australia.
*17 January – Employment Minister [[Tony Abbott]] advocates Work for the Dole for all persons unemployed for more than six months.
*30 January – Queensland Premier [[Peter Beattie]] demands that Prime Minister [[John Howard]] halt the Federal Parliamentary inquiry investigating electoral rorts.

===February===
*10 February – In Western Australia, the [[Liberal Party of Australia|Liberal]]/[[National Party of Australia|National]] coalition government of [[Richard Court]] is voted out and replaced by the [[Australian Labor Party]] (ALP), led by [[Geoff Gallop]].
*27 February – The [[Australian Labor Party|Labor]] government of [[Peter Beattie]] is comfortably re-elected for a second term in Queensland, despite a scandal that broke out weeks before the election that involved breaches of the Electoral Act by several MPs, including the [[Deputy Premiers of the Australian states|Deputy Premier]].

===March===
*1 March – West Australian Premier [[Geoff Gallop]] ends all old growth logging in the state.
*2 March – Victorian Premier [[Steve Bracks]] pleads for Transurban to drop its $36 million compensation claim against the State.
*16 March – [[HIH Insurance]] goes into provisional liquidation, but claims it can cover all household and third party policies.
*17 March – Labor candidate [[Leonie Short]] wins the [[2001 Ryan by-election|Ryan by-election]] in Queensland, defeating Liberal candidate, Bob Tucker.

===April===
*8 April – Immigration Minister [[Philip Ruddock]] refers to the [[Curtin Immigration Reception and Processing Centre]] rioters as "publicity seekers".

===May===
*7 May – Queensland Premier [[Peter Beattie]] orders a dingo cull on [[Fraser Island]] after 9-year-old Clinton Gage is mauled to death by a dingo on 30 April.
*9 May – a special [[Joint meetings of the Australian Parliament|joint sitting]] of the Australian Parliament was held at the [[Royal Exhibition Building]] in [[Melbourne]], commemorating the centenary of the opening of the first Parliament of Australia exactly 100 years earlier. The joint sitting was addressed by the Governor-General, Sir [[William Deane]].<ref>{{cite hansard
|jurisdiction= Commonwealth of Australia
|house=House of Representatives
|title=Centenary of the first meetings of the houses of the Commonwealth Parliament
|url=http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F2001-05-09%2F0004%22
|date=9 May 2001
|page=26647
|speaker=[[William Deane|Deane, William]]
|position=[[Governor-General of Australia|Governor-General]]}}</ref><ref name="scroope-2012">{{cite web |last1=Scroope |first1=Kylie |title='Faithful Representations': 100 Years of the Historic Memorials Collection |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Research_and_Education/~/~/link.aspx?_id=826A07FC8D214FC1BF37B5F82E3BEA60 |website=Papers on Parliament |publisher=Department of the Senate, Parliament of Australia |access-date=16 August 2024 |date=2012}}</ref>
*21 May – The Federal Government announces a commission into the [[HIH Insurance|HIH insurance]] disaster with $500 million allocated to victims.
*24 May – Former [[HIH Insurance]] director, [[Rodney Adler]] fights an attempt to freeze his assets.

===June===
*7 June – Prime Minister [[John Howard]] rejects the suggestion by the new Anglican Archbishop of Sydney that he is out of step with God regarding his views on reconciliation.
*10 June – Seven detainees of Middle Eastern origin escape from the [[Woomera Detention Centre]], South Australia, on the same day that Australian and international media are allowed to tour the [[Curtin Immigration Reception and Processing Centre]] in Western Australia.
*21 June – Prime Minister [[John Howard]] rejects renewed Opposition demands to sack Aged Care Minister [[Bronwyn Bishop]] following the painful death of an elderly woman in aged care. 
*27 June – The New South Wales Government agrees to support South Australia's bid to build an electricity riverlink interconnector between the two states, giving access to cheaper power from the east.
*29 June – [[Anglican]] [[Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane|Archbishop of Brisbane]] Dr [[Peter Hollingworth]] is sworn in as [[Governor-General of Australia]]. He would later resign amidst controversy over his handling of child sex cases during his time as Archbishop.

===July===
[[File:Howard Powell Rumsfeld.JPEG|thumb|[[Prime Minister of Australia|Australian Prime Minister]] [[John Howard]] (center) poses for a photograph with [[United States Secretary of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense]] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] (right) and [[United States Secretary of State|U.S. Secretary of State]] [[Colin Powell]], inside the Australian Prime Minister's offices at the [[Parliament House, Canberra|Parliament House]], [[Canberra]], Australia, on 30 July 2001. Two U.S. Secretaries are in Australia to attend Australia-U.S. Ministerial (AUSMIN) talks and conduct meetings with high-level government military and civilian officials.]]
*10 July – West Australian Premier [[Geoff Gallop]] announces that State Government-AMA talks will be halted until doctors end their industrial action.
*14 July – Liberal candidate [[Chris Pearce (politician)|Chris Pearce]] wins the [[2001 Aston by-election]] in Victoria.
*20 July – Australian citizen [[Vivian Solon]] is unlawfully deported to the [[Philippines]] by the [[Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Australia)|Department of Immigration]].

===August===
*8 August – Prime Minister [[John Howard]] says he will block any attempts of a heroin trial in the [[Australian Capital Territory]].  However, the ACT Government pushes ahead with the drug referendum.
*14 August – The [[Australian Catholic University]] announces that its new General Staff Enterprise Bargaining Agreement includes a provision for one year's paid maternity leave, 12 weeks on full pay and a further 40 weeks on 60% pay.
*15 August – Long-time South Australian MP and Party Whip, Murray DeLaine, quits Labor and announces that he is running as an independent at the next state election.
*18 August – For the first time since self-government was granted to the [[Northern Territory]] in 1978, the [[Country Liberal Party]] is voted out of office and replaced by the [[Australian Labor Party|ALP]]
*24 August – The [[Tampa affair]] begins when the [[MV Tampa]] tries to help a boatload of refugees, mainly from [[Afghanistan]]. The crisis is resolved when New Zealand agrees to take some of the refugees and countries such as [[Nauru]] and [[Papua New Guinea]] agree to take the rest. This was known as the [[Pacific Solution]].
*30 August – Prime Minister [[John Howard]] urges Indonesian President [[Megawati Sukarnoputri]] to accept asylum seekers currently on board the [[MV Tampa]].

===September===
*10 September – Prime Minister [[John Howard]] starts his United States tour in [[Washington, D.C.]], shortly before the [[September 11 attacks]] happen.
*12 September – [[Ansett Australia]], one of the oldest airlines in the world and the second-largest in Australia goes under administration with [[KordaMentha]] due to major financial struggles. Despite this administrators assure the public that flights will continue as normal.
*14 September- Just two days after going into administration, Ansett Australia ceases operations resulting in a redundancy of 15,000 staff and tens of thousands of stranded passengers. This occurs despite former assurance by the administrators that no such thing would happen.
*24 September – Prime Minister [[John Howard]] urges [[Qantas]] to reach a quick agreement to put some [[Ansett Airlines]] planes back in the air as soon as possible following the company's collapse.
*26 September – Prime Minister [[John Howard]] dedicates the Magna Carta monument near Old Parliament house as part of a Centenary of Federation project.
*27 September – The Federal Government passes legislation with amendments to the Commonwealth Migration Act (1958) aimed at implementing the Government's [[Pacific Solution]]. By redefining the area of Australian territory that could be landed upon and then legitimately used for claims of asylum (the migration zone), and by removing any intercepted people to third countries for processing, the aim was to deter future asylum seekers from making the dangerous journey by boat, once they knew that their trip would probably not end with a legitimate claim for asylum in Australia.

===October===
*6 October – [[SIEV-4]] reached [[Christmas Island]] with 223 passengers. It was alleged by several in the government that asylum seekers aboard this vessel threw their children overboard in order to attract the attention of Australian authorities. This later became known as the 'Children Overboard Affair'
*12 October – SIEV-5 reaches [[Ashmore Reef]] with 242 passengers.
*14 October – 
**Immigration Minister [[Philip Ruddock]] claims that boat people now in [[Nauru]] attacked sailors and caused damage to HMAS Manoora.
**Federal Opposition Leader [[Kim Beazley]] is declared the winner of a televised debate with Prime Minister [[John Howard]] in the lead-up to the Federal Election.
*16 October – Prime Minister [[John Howard]] pledges, if re-elected, to introduce retrospective legislation imposing ten years in jail for anyone found guilty of sending hoax threats of biological or chemical material through the mail.  The announcement follows 24 hours of hoax [[anthrax]] threats throughout the nation, which had resulted in offices being evacuated, airports cleared, and post offices coming to a sudden halt.
*18 October – SIEV-6 reaches Christmas Island with 227 passengers.
*19 October – 
**[[SIEV-X]], an [[Indonesia]]n fishing boat en route to [[Christmas Island]], carrying over 400 [[asylum seekers]], sank in international waters with the loss of 353 people.
**South Australian Premier [[John Olsen]] resigns in tears after an inquiry finds that he has been dishonest to an investigation into how [[Motorola]] set up operations in South Australia.
*20 October – 
**The [[Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly|Legislative Assembly]] election in the [[Australian Capital Territory]] results in the Labor Party coming to power for the first time since 1995.
**Prime Minister [[John Howard]] attends the APEC Summit in China.
*22 October – 
**[[Rob Kerin]] is voted by 22 MPs as South Australia's 43rd Premier.
**SIEV-7 reached Ashmore Reef with 233 passengers.
*October – [[Military of Australia|Australia]] agrees to provide 1550 troops to the US operation in [[Afghanistan]].
*28 October – Prime Minister [[John Howard]] makes a speech at his 2001 election campaign policy launch in Sydney, declaring that "we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come" in an effort to build support for the Government's [[Pacific Solution]] policy.

===November===
*8 November – [[Katherine Knight]] is sentenced to life in imprisonment without possibility of parole for the murder of her partner John Price, whom she stabbed 37 times, beheaded, dismembered and then cooked.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WFNaD9ArVqwC&pg=PT132|title=Extreme Evil: Taking Crime to the Next Level|first1=Phil|last1=Clarke|first2=Tom|last2=Briggs|first3=Kate|last3=Briggs|date=1 August 2011|publisher=Canary Press eBooks|isbn=9781907795916|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*10 November – In the wake of the [[11 September attacks]] and the Tampa crisis, the [[Liberal Party of Australia|Liberal]]/[[National Party of Australia|National]] coalition government of John Howard is [[2001 Australian federal election|re-elected]] for a third term in office. [[Kim Beazley]] resigns as opposition leader and is replaced by [[Simon Crean]].
*26 November – Former director of collapsed [[HIH Insurance]] giant, [[Rodney Adler]] faces court on charges involving a $7 million loss.
*27 November – A [[Beechcraft King Air|Beechcraft C90]] operated by [[Eastland Air]] crashes after take-off at [[Toowoomba City Aerodrome]], killing four people.<ref name="eastland">{{cite news |title=Coroner to deliver Eastland Air findings |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/coroner-to-deliver-eastland-air-findings-20070807-ry8.html |access-date=26 July 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=7 August 2007 |language=en |archive-date=26 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726044412/https://www.smh.com.au/national/coroner-to-deliver-eastland-air-findings-20070807-ry8.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
*28 November – West Australian Premier [[Geoff Gallop]] announces that an inquiry will be held into child abuse in Aboriginal communities.

===December===
*12 December – South Australian Premier [[Rob Kerin]] pledges $25 million to improve industrial infrastructure in the Upper Spencer Gulf.
*18 December – Fires at [[Woomera Detention Centre]] are lit by detainees in protest.<ref>{{cite web|title=More riots at Australian detention camp|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/12/18/aus.refugees.riot/|publisher=CNN|date=18 December 2001|access-date=8 May 2018|archive-date=9 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509080642/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/12/18/aus.refugees.riot/|url-status=live}}</ref>
*25 December – 6 January – [[Black Christmas (bushfires)|Bushfires]] rage across [[New South Wales]]. No-one is killed.
*26 December
**The [[south coast tornado]] occurs during the 2001 [[Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race]].
**A campaign run by the [[Australian Council of Trade Unions]] (ACTU) and the Equal Opportunity Commission attempts to secure 14 weeks' paid maternity leave for working mothers.