4 January – Stradbroke Island suffers bushfires which burn out over 8,500 hectares (21,004 acres) of bushland.
12–15 January – Perth Hills Fire; A total of 55 homes were razed, 1 fatality, and a damage bill in excess of $13 million.[2]
15–20 January – Grampians Fire – A fire starts as a result of lightning strikes in the northern Grampians National Park on 15 January. Extreme fire conditions on 17 January saw the fire grow in size to over 50,000 hectares (123,553 acres). The fire was brought under control on 18 January. By the time the fire is contained on 20 January, it had burnt out 55,000 hectares (135,908 acres) hectares. The estimated losses included 90 structures, 32 homes and 3000 sheep.
20 January – New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell uses special legislation to cancel three coal licences worth hundreds of millions of dollars issued by corrupt former Labor minister Ian Macdonald and deny the companies that own them any compensation.
21 January – New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell announces the introduction of laws to prevent "one-hit punches", including mandatory eight-year jail sentences for fatal one-punch attacks fuelled by alcohol, in an effort to curb alcohol-related violence in Sydney. The laws also include expanded Sydney CBD CBD lockouts, a freeze on new liquor licences, and the statewide closure of bottle shops at 10:00pm.[3]
26 January – West Australian Premier Colin Barnett defends the government's catch-and-kill policy, which had been announced the previous month, after the first shark under the policy was caught on bailed drum lines off the state's south-west coast the previous day.[4]
28 January – General Peter Cosgrove is announced as the next Governor-General of Australia.
The Federal Government rejects a $25 million assistance request from SPC Ardmona, a fruit processing company which sought help from the Victorian and Federal governments to restructure its operations, arguing the high Australian dollar and cheap imports had made it hard to compete. Prime Minister Tony Abbott says SPC Ardmona's parent company, Coca-Cola Amatil, has the resources to carry out that restructure without the need for government funding.[6]
4 February – Ken Smith resigns as Speaker of the Victorian Parliament after launching an attack on independent MP Geoff Shaw during the first question time of the year, being replaced by deputy speaker Christine Fyffe. Smith told Parliament that Shaw had been "colluding" with Labor to destabilise the state government.
Victorian Premier Denis Napthine announces a $22 million assistance package for SPC Ardmona, Australia's largest food processor and packaging company to transform and modernize its operations at the company's Shepparton plant.[11]
18 February – The Australian Federal Police carries out raids on the offices of Channel Seven in Sydney in relation to the network's bid for an interview with convicted drug smuggler, Schapelle Corby.[12]
10 March – West Australian Premier Colin Barnett announces the resignation of the State's Treasurer, Troy Buswell due to an accident involving his ministerial car. Mr. Barnett said that Mr. Buswell has had a breakdown and has been hospitalised over recent weeks.[14]
15 March – State elections are held in South Australia and Tasmania. The Liberal Party defeats the GiddingsLabor government in Tasmania, after 16 years in opposition. In South Australia, the result is a hung parliament, with Jay Weatherill's Labor government remaining in power after the support of one of the crossbench independents.
25 March – Prime Minister Tony Abbott announces that the titles of knights and dames will be reintroduced into the Order of Australia honours list after being abolished in 1986. The first to receive the award will be the outgoing Governor-General, the Queen's representative in Australia, who will be known as Dame Quentin Bryce. Incoming Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and all future holders of the post will also receive the honour.
5 April – A special election is held for six Senate seats from Western Australia, following the voiding of results due to the loss of 1,375 ballot papers in the 2013 federal election.
13 May – Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey delivers the 2014 Australian federal budget, the first budget of the Abbott Government. The budget features significant structural reform to redress a growing deficit. This includes a dramatic downsizing of government bureaucracy. It also contained significant changes to welfare, new initiatives for a medical research fund and spending on roads. A budget surplus is not expected until 2023. A controversial measure is the implementation of a $7 co-payment for patients' visits to general practitioners, to take effect from 1 July 2015.[17]
23 May – Queensland MP Dr Chris Davis quits as Member for Stafford after he could not support the Newman government's move that only political donations of more than $12,400 would have to be declared to the Electoral Commission. Dr Davis was sacked Assistant Health Minister a week earlier after he spoke out against doctor contracts and changes to the Crime and Misconduct Commission.[18]
27 May – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, rejects allegations she breached protocol as Speaker by hosting a Liberal Party fundraiser in the Speaker's suite and says she will not be bound by stricter party political requirements agreed between Labor and the Greens which require the Speaker not to attend Party caucus meetings.[19]
3 June – Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls hands down the State budget, revealing the Government's plans to privatise $33.6 billion worth of assets to bring the budget back into surplus. The Government blames a crash in coal royalties and a deferral of federal disaster relief payments for the blowout. Resources for sale include long-term leases on the Townsville and Gladstone Ports, and selling power companies Stanwell and CS energy, despite public fervour against privatising assets in the state.[20]
12 June – Queensland Premier Campbell Newman announces that Tim Carmody will be the next Chief Justice of Queensland, sparking controversy among the legal profession over Mr. Carmody's elevation to the role from the position of Chief Magistrate. Mr. Carmody's strong public support for the Newman government's anti-bikie (VLAD) laws was also critically viewed as a factor in his appointment.[21]
19 June – West Australian Premier Colin Barnett suggests that there will be further spending cuts to deliver a promised budget surplus if the iron ore price does not recover. The price of iron ore had slid below the benchmark level of $US90 a tonne for the first time since September 2012 after a drop in demand from China, being down 34 per cent for the year.[22]
29 June – NRL player Todd Carney is sacked from the Cronulla Sharks due to a photograph leaked on social media in which he appears to urinate into his mouth, a practice colloquially known as "bubbling".
30 June – A London jury finds Australian entertainer, Rolf Harris, guilty of indecently assaulting four girls in Britain between 1968 and 1986. Calls are made by locals from Mr Harris' home town of Bassendean, Western Australia for the removal of memorial plaques placed in Harris' honour.[24]
8 July – New Queensland Chief Justice Tim Carmody is sworn in at a private ceremony in Brisbane's court district, the first time in almost a century that the state's new Chief Justice is sworn in behind closed doors – a move which prompts further criticism from the legal profession.[25]
15 July – A Queensland Supreme Court jury finds Gerard Baden-Clay guilty of murdering his wife Allison in April 2012 and he is given a sentence of life imprisonment.[26] In December 2015 the charge was downgraded to manslaughter.[27]
8 August – New Zealand woman Warriena Tagpuno Wright falls to her death from the balcony of a Surfers Paradise apartment owned by Gable Tostee, a 28-year-old man whom she met on dating app Tinder.[29] The incident subsequently receives international coverage.
14 August – New South Wales Premier Mike Baird is forced to declare that he has never accepted an illegal donation after repeatedly failing to give the guarantee in Parliament, after Government Swansea MP Garry Edwards is moved to the crossbench over allegations of receiving tainted funds.
18 August – Former treasurer Wayne Swan addresses the National Press Club of Australia, defending his economic legacy and attacks the budget measures of the Abbott Government. He said it would not be long before "necessity" forced a future government to return to carbon pricing and a tax on natural resources.[30]
14 September – Australia sends combat aircraft and special forces to the Middle East to help in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
17 September – Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls announces that the Queensland Government is looking at potentially leasing ports, power stations and distribution assets, for periods of 50 to 99 years as an alternative to selling those assets.[32]
18 September – Australian police mount raids in the cities of Sydney and Brisbane on alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant sympathisers based on intelligence claims that they were planning a public execution in Australia with fifteen people arrested.
19 September – Australia raises security for its Parliament after conducting raids that arrest dozens of suspected terrorists.
5 October – Mayang Prasetyo, an Indonesian transgender woman is murdered and cooked by her husband, chef Marcus Peter Volke, at their Teneriffe apartment in Brisbane. Mr Volke slit his own throat after fleeing from police.[33]
8 October – A rare total lunar eclipse occurred in Canberra which the moon is blood red. Keen astronomers gathered at Mount Stromlo Observatory on this night.[34]
9 October – A Cairns nurse is admitted to hospital after fears she may have been the first case of the Ebola virus. She is later tested negative.
14 October – The storm that hit Sydney was described as a once in a century event. Marrickville, Canterbury and Sydney Airport had a torrent of rainfall in as many as three hours and what you'd expect to see in one location about once every 20 years.
21 October – Gough Whitlam, Australia's 21st Prime Minister, dies at the age of 98. He was well known for the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, which saw him dismissed as Prime Minister. Also, for bringing about the Anti-Discrimination Act, making university free and eradicating the last remnants of the Immigration Restriction Act (1901).
23 October – 3 people are shot dead in North Western Victoria over a neighbourly dispute by Ian Jamieson.
31 October – Former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard has managed to clear her name after the Royal Commission into trade unions has found her not guilty of corruption or criminal conduct
5 November – A public memorial service is held at Sydney Town Hall to honour former Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam. Former Prime Ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd are temporarily embarrassed when it appears that they have been seated next to each other during the service.
7 November – Palmer United Senator Jacqui Lambie declares she'll vote against every piece of Government legislation until the Federal Government improves its proposed below inflation 1.5 per cent pay rise for defence force personnel.
8 November – Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Victorian Premier Denis Napthine announce a $250 million Commonwealth-State partnership to complete the upgrade of the Tullamarine Freeway to Melbourne Airport, creating 200 jobs.[35]
10 November – Prime Minister Tony Abbott arrives in Beijing for the APEC Summit.
13 November – Divisions within the Palmer United Party become more public with Clive Palmer labelling his Senator, Jacqui Lambie a "drama queen".
18 November – India's Prime minister Narendra Modi makes a speech to Federal Parliament in which he expresses his desire for Australian resources to fuel development in India.[36]
19 November – Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull announces in Adelaide that the nation's two public broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, will lose more than $300 million in funding over the next five years, prompting subsequent public criticism that the Federal Government had broken an election promise not to cut funding to these two public broadcasting channels.[37]
22 November – Foreign Minister Julie Bishop warns the UN Security Council not to be complacent in the fight against Ebola.
3 December – The funeral of cricketer Phillip Hughes is held in his home town of Macksville.
7 December –
Prime Minister Tony Abbott announces changes to the government's paid parental leave scheme such as the introduction of means testing and the cutting off of eligibility for women earning $150,000 a year or more, but left the elaboration of the finer details of the changes for a later date.
A court in Lismore convicts former National Rugby League player Craig Field of the manslaughter of Kelvin Kane outside the Kingscliff Hotel in 2012.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott announces that the Federal Government will abandon plans to introduce the controversial $7 Medicare co-payment.[39]
11 December – Prime Minister Tony Abbott publicly defends his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, against growing criticism from within his own party, levelling accusations of sexism against her critics.[40]
13 December – The Federal Government announces that it will scrap over 200 government agencies.
Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey is criticised for delivering his Mid Year Fiscal Outlook when the nation's attention is diverted by the Martin Place siege. Mr Hockey announces that foreign aid will be slashed by $3.7 billion in order to boost national security spending.[41]
16 December – The hostage situation in Martin Place ends with gunman Man Haron Monis and two hostages dead and four others injured.
20 December – Queensland police arrest an Australian mother for murder in the stabbing deaths of eight children.
22 December –
Prime Minister Tony Abbott causes controversy and is accused of sexism when he states that women are particularly "focused on the household budget" – a budget which he claimed was about $550 a year better off with the carbon tax gone.[42]
Amirah Droudis, former partner of Man Monis, the Martin Place gunman, is refused bail.
23 December –
The new Federal Cabinet is sworn in.
Separate funerals take place in Sydney for Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson, the victims of the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis.
Intense rain in Queensland and New South Wales causes flooding in some areas. 300 mm is recorded in Tweed Heads and flooding cuts access to some roads.
31 December – Australia concludes its two-year term on the United Nations Security Council. Australia decides to vote against a Palestinian-proposed United Nations resolution that demanded the end of Israeli occupation within three years. Australia is one of only two nations, along with the United States, Israel's closest ally, to vote against the resolution.[44]
4 November – Horse racing: Protectionist wins the 2014 Melbourne Cup. Race favourite and Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti collapses and dies of a cardiac arrest after finishing last in the race. Another horse, Araldo, is euthanised after sustaining a leg injury when spooked by a spectator.
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