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9 January – HMAS Adelaide rescues British yachtsman, Tony Bullimore, from the Southern Ocean, after his boat, Exide Challenger, capsized three days before.[1]
20 January - Prime Minister John Howard calls a meeting of State Premiers to discuss the implications of the High Court's Wik judgment.
26 January – Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty is named Australian of the Year.
29 January - Hundreds turn out in North Queensland to hear Pauline Hanson criticise the High Court's ruling in the Wik case.
February
4 February - Prime Minister John Howard wins Parliamentary support for a constitutional convention on the republic.
9 February - Prime Minister John Howard announces that unemployed 16 to 20-year-olds will be forced to work up to 20 hours a week on community-based projects in trial work-for-the-dole schemes. Participants will be paid award rates and will be obliged to work only the number of hours that equate to their dole payment.
10 February - Prime Minister John Howard convenes meetings between miners, farmers and Aboriginal leaders, to discuss the Wik native title issue. Mr Howard also reveals the details of the Government's Work for the Dole plan.
11 February - Prime Minister John Howard admits he approved a requested pay rise for one of Labor defector Mal Colston's staff shortly before last year's crucial Senate vote on the partial sale of Telstra.[2]
14 February - Arnott's Biscuits begins withdrawing its biscuits from supermarket shelves as authorities issue a health alert over an extortionist's poison threat. A pesticide strong enough to kill a small child had been found in some of the biscuits.[3]
22 February - Reflecting on his first year in office, Prime Minister John Howard talks of a "10-year leadership transition" and said that "while my health lasts and I've got my marbles and I'm delivering good leadership and political success, you stay. But when that changes, you don't".
23 February - Federal Independent Senator Mal Colston denies new allegations that he had rorted his parliamentary expenses, saying the claims by a former employee were "malicious".[4]
25 February - The Minister for Administrative Services, David Jull, announces a departmental investigation into Independent Senator Mal Colston's use of chauffeur-driven Commonwealth cars and warns he would have no hesitation referring the matter to police.[5]
26 February - Arnott's Biscuits restocks Queensland supermarket shelves with its biscuits three weeks after it was rocked by an extortion threat. The threat has cost the company at least $10 million.[6]
March
6 March - In Cairns, Paul Streeton is sentenced to life imprisonment for setting fire to school boy Tjandamurra O'Shane.
24 March -
Senator Mal Colston admits he's guilty of claiming an extra $7,000 for travel expenses, but blames sloppy book-keeping.
A conscience vote by the Senate overturns the Northern Territory's controversial voluntary euthanasia legislation, The Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.
26 March - Prime Minister John Howard announces plans for a constitutional convention in Canberra to consider the republic issue.
29 March - Prime Minister John Howard arrives in Shanghai, China to promote trade relations.
31 March - Prime Minister John Howard meets Chinese Premier Li Peng in Beijing and proposes a strategic relationship that focuses on trade, with regular military consultation and a human rights dialogue to manage differences between the two countries.
April
1 to 30 April – This is the driest area-averaged month since at least 1900 over New South Wales, with an average of 3.23 millimetres or 0.13 inches,[7] and over the Murray-Darling Basin, with an average of 1.99 millimetres or 0.078 inches.[8]
2 April – Governor-General Sir William Deane urges action to address the widening gap in health between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
8 April –
Prime Minister John Howard refers travel rort allegations against Senator Mal Colston to the Australian Federal Police and calls on his to stand down as Deputy President of the Senate. Liberal Senator Bob Woods and National Party backbencher Michael Cobb are also under investigation for allegedly rorting parliamentary expenses.
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr announces plans to abolish or amend the law which allows diminished responsibility to be used as a legal defence.
9 April – Senator Mal Colston agrees to stand down as Senate Deputy President but refuses to resign from Parliament.
14 April – Prime Minister John Howard announces that the Government will no longer accept the vote of Senator Mal Colston.
17 April – The Charter of Budget Honesty Act becomes law, setting a framework for sound fiscal management and informing the public about public finances.
21 April – Former West Australian Premier Carmen Lawrence is charged with perjury over her evidence to the 1995 Easton Royal Commission.
29 April – BHP announces it will end steel-making operations in Newcastle in 1999, with 2,500 job losses.
30 April – Prime Minister John Howard speaks on Radio 3AW about Pauline Hanson saying that she is "articulating the fears and concerns and the sense of insecurity that many Australian feel at a time of change and instability. Now it's easy to sort of finger the fact that people feel uneasy and unhappy. The next step is to say, 'Okay, you've fingered the uncertainty. What are you going to do about it?'"
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer uses the launch of Asialine, a magazine for Australian business in Asia, to make a strong attack on Pauline Hanson, saying her views are offensive to people of all backgrounds. "Those views promote an insular Australia separate from the region. This is the concept of a little Australia: inward looking, narrow-minded, protectionist and disconnected from our own neighbourhood," he says.
Nine months after Pauline Hanson's maiden speech, Prime Minister John Howard directly attacks her views for the first time saying, "she is wrong when she suggests that Aboriginals are not disadvantaged. She is wrong when she says that Australia is in danger of being swamped by Asians. She is wrong to seek scapegoats for society's problems. She is wrong when she denigrates foreign investment, because it withdrawal would cost jobs. She is wrong when she claims Australia is headed for civil war".
13 May - Federal Treasurer Peter Costello delivers his second Federal Budget, which delivers a tax rebate of up to $450 per year on savings and a $1 billion Federation Fund for construction.
15 May - The Industrial Relations Commission signals the end of the traditional award system by rejecting an industry-wide claim for a wage rise.
20 May – The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission releases a 689-page report entitled, Bringing Them Home, which states that Australian governments must apologise and pay compensation for the forced removal of Aboroginal and Toores Strait Islander children from their families. The report concludes that successive government policies of forced removal of children constitutes a crime against humanity which amounted to "genocide". It recommends a national compensation fund be established by the Commonwealth and states, as well as a national "sorry day" be held each year.
21 May - The Federal Government announces further cuts to immigration, halving the family reunion programme and increasing skilled migration, saying cuts are linked to high unemployment.
26 May - Prime Minister John Howard tables the Bringing Them Home report, saying that "personally, I feel deep sorrow for those of my fellow Australians who suffered injustices under the practices of past generations towards indigenous people...[but] Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies over which they had no control." At the Reconciliation Convention in Melbourne, some Aborigines turn their backs on the Prime Minister.
30 May – Prime Minister John Howard releases a ten-point plan in response to the High Court of Australia's historic Wik decision last December which recognised that native title and pastoral leases can co-exist. Key points of the plan include the permanent extinguishment of native title on freehold, exclusive-tenure leases, agricultural leases deemed to confer exclusive title and where rights are inconsistent with those of pastoralists; the removal of the right of native title-holders to negotiate over mining exploration and the imposition of a six-year unset clause to register statutory native title claims.
June
5 June - Prime Minister John Howard bows to pressure from the car industry to accept a four-year freeze on car tariffs from 2000 to 2004.
15 June – 14-month-old Jaidyn Leskie disappears from a house in Moe, Victoria.
21 June - Prime Minister John Howard briefs the Queen on his plans to deal with the republic issue.
24 June - Prime Minister John Howard describes Australia as a racially tolerant nation in the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Lecture in London.
26 June - Prime Minister John Howard arrives in Washington and is met by US Ambassador Andrew Peacock. Mr Howard meets with President Bill Clinton on 27 June.
When Britain hands back Hong Kong to China, Prime Minister John Howard warns China that it must keep its promise to maintain Hong Kong's freedom and autonomy.
13 July – A crowd of over 100,000 people watches the Royal Canberra Hospital implosion. A 12-year-old girl, Katie Bender, is killed instantly and nine others are injured when debris from the site travels across Lake Burley Griffin.
Two Australians are killed when a temporary wooden bridge collapses into a shallow creek at the Maccabiah Games near Tel Aviv, Israel.
17 July – Frank Gilford waives his right to call for the death penalty of two British nurses charged with the murder of his sister Yvonne in Saudi Arabia.
21 July - Former West Australian Premier Dr Carmen Lawrence pleads not guilty to giving false evidence to the Marks Royal Commission.
23 July - Queensland Premier Rob Borbidge criticises cuts by the Federal Government to drought relief funds.
24 July – The West Australian Court of Criminal Appeal quashes seven convictions against former West Australian Premier Brian Burke.
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr announces that New South Wales Police will employ Korean police and intelligence officers to help crack down on organised crime gangs as investigations continue into Korean loan-shark operations at Sydney Harbour Casino.
12 August - Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett is under fire for spending over $5,000 on a helicopter trip.
18 August – Aboriginal activist Burnum Burnum dies at his Woronora home near Sydney. He is particularly remembered for claiming Britain on behalf of the Aboriginal people on Australia Day 1988, while Australia celebrated its bi-centennial.
The head of Yagan, a Noongar warrior, is repatriated to Australia 164 years after being taken to the United Kingdom.[9]
Prime Minister John Howard announces the 36 names of Australians appointed to the Constitutional Convention that will discuss Australia becoming a republic.
September
1 September - Federal Cabinet shelves plans to alter cross-media ownership laws.
2 September - Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett ridicules Federal Cabinet's indecision on media ownership laws. The Federal Opposition uses this to help show that the Prime Minister is weak.
3 September - Waterfront unions and the ACTU warn the Federal Government of widespread industrial action if the Government continues its method of reforming work conditions at seaports.
8 September - New South Wales Premier Bob Carr opens a world-class cancer research institute in Camperdown, Sydney.
11 September - BHP announces plans to cut over 800 jobs from coal mines in Illawarra.
14 September - Prime Minister John Howard announces a $5 million rescue package for farmers.
30 September - The guns buyback amnesty expires with owners of restricted weapons now facing fines.
October
4 October - The New South Wales Labor Party Conference delegates reject Premier Bob Carr's planned sell-off of the State's electricity assets. Mr. Carr is the first Labor Premier in fifty years to suffer a defeat at a State Party Conference.
Queensland Premier Rob Borbidge announces nearly $30 million to bail out the Queensland Ambulance Service, but unions say it is not enough.
The first of the Federal Government's Work for the Dole schemes begins in Sydney.
9 December – The Australian Bankers Association doubles the bounty on the head of bank robber Brendan Abbott
19 December – Postcard bandit Brendan Abbott robs the Yirrigan Drive branch of the Commonwealth Bank in Perth, disguised as a businessman in a grey wig and a false moustache and brandishing a .45 Webley, stealing $300,000.
26 December – The final figures for the nationwide guns buyback are released: 640,000 weapons were surrendered across Australia with New South Wales providing the poorest number of returns.
24 March - Queensland-born actor Geoffrey Rush wins "Best Actor" at the 69th Academy Awards for his portrayal of pianist David Helfgott in the movie Shine. He is the first Australian to win the Best Actor Oscar since Peter Finch in 1976 for the film Network. Australian cinematographer John Seale wins an Oscar for his work on the film The English Patient.
3 September – The Castle, a film that cost $700,000 to make and was shot in 11 days, passes $10 million at the box office.
Television
1 July – Prime Television comes to Mildura, ending a monopoly on commercial television held by STV-8 since 1965.
27 February – First day of the Australian Track & Field Championships for the 1996–1997 season, which are held at the Olympic Park in Melbourne, Victoria. The 5,000 metres was conducted at the Nike Classic, Melbourne on 20 February. The men's decathlon event was conducted at the Hobart Grand Prix on 15–16 February 1997.
25 May – Brisbane Strikers create history by winning the NSL Grand Final, a 2–0 victory over Sydney United. The achievement was the first NSL title in their history, the first time a Queensland side had won the title, and all in front of a record crowd of 40,446 at Suncorp Stadium.
13 July – Patrick Carroll wins his second men's national marathon title, clocking 2:11:21 in Brisbane, while Susan Hobson claims her second women's title in 2:32:43.
4 August – Cathy Freeman becomes the first Australian woman to win a title at the World Athletics Championships, after her triumph in the 400 metres event in Athens in 49.77 seconds.
10 August – Australia retains the Ashes after beating England by 264 runs in the Fifth Test at Trent Bridge Nottingham. The win gives Australia its fifth consecutive series victory, an ascendancy they've held since winning the 1989 series in England.
7 September – Pat Rafter wins the US Open, defeating Britain's Greg Rusedski 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 7–5 to claim Australia's first grand slam tournament title since Pat Cash won Wimbledon in 1987.
17 September – The Melbourne Storm rugby league team is founded.
27 September – The Adelaide Crows (19.11.125) defeat the St Kilda Saints (13.16.94) to win the 101st VFL/AFL. It is the first premiership for Adelaide & the first time the AFL flag has left Victoria since 1994.
28 September – In one of, if not the most exciting grand final ever played, the Newcastle Knights defeat the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 22–16 to win the 90th NSWRL/ARL premiership. It is the first premiership for Newcastle & it was the third consecutive grand final appearance for Manly.
