26 January – Prime Minister Paul Keating gives his Australia Day address in Canberra, saying that Australia must adapt to a changing world and look to Asia if it was to survive economically.
28 January – Colin White and David Trimmer are charged over their alleged involvement in a multimillion-dollar tobacco scam in Brisbane.
29 January – New South Wales Premier Nick Greiner calls for a controversial sex education book, funded by the Federal Government, to be destroyed.
9 February – Flooding occurs in Sydney and other areas of New South Wales. Torrential rain also floods the Sydney Harbour Tunnel with 500,000 litres of water.[1]
After trialling Daylight Saving in Queensland for a total of three years, a referendum is held, with 54.5% of Queenslanders voting against daylight saving. Regional and rural areas strongly oppose daylight saving, while those in the metropolitan south-east vote in favour of it.
A state of emergency is declared in the whole of Noosa Shire, Queensland due to major flooding – the worst since 1968.
24 February – Queen Elizabeth II visits Australia. Prime Minister Paul Keating breaks royal protocol by placing his hand on the Queen's back, causing an outraged British tabloid newspaper to dub him the "Lizard of Oz". In his speech welcoming the Queen, Paul Keating contrasts the current state of Australia with that of her first visit in 1954.
11 April – Independent candidate Phil Cleary wins the 1992 Wills by-election which was brought about by the resignation of Bob Hawke. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser attributes the result in part to revulsion against the "alien creed" of economic rationalism.
25 April – Prime Minister Paul Keating kisses the ground at Kokoda, Papua New Guinea, declaring that it, not Gallipoli, is the birthplace of Australian nationalism.
18 May – Social Security Minister Graham Richardson resigns after a month of disclosures on his interventions on a friend's behalf in the "Marshall Islands affair".
3 June – The High Court of Australia decides the case of Mabo v Queensland (No 2), a landmark decision recognising native title in Australia. The decision overturns the concept of Australia as an unoccupied land (terra nullius) at the time of British settlement.
31 July – Janet Powell resigns from the Australian Democrats, sitting henceforth as an Independent Senator. The Victorian branch of the Democrats fractures acrimoniously, damaging the party nationally.
11 August – A meeting with Prime Minister Paul Keating fails to secure for the Greens commitments on global warming, endangered species protection and biodiversity.
18 August – Budget expenditure promises on labour market and training programmes and reducing the sizeable deficit fail to halt the Keating Government's sliding popularity.
30 August – Representatives from the Tasmanian, Queensland and New South Wales Greens, with observers from other states, form the Australian Greens Party at a Sydney meeting.
30 September – The High Court of Australia invalidates legislation passed in December 1991 banning political advertising on the electronic media in the run-up to state and federal elections.
The trial of the second man accused of murdering Dr. Victor Chang begins.
The Federal Opposition unveils Jobsback, its industrial relations policy designed to move from centralised wage-fixing to individual employment contracts negotiated at the enterprise level.
27 October – Senator Bronwyn Bishop attacks the Tax Commissioner over alleged special treatment to the Labor Party.
30 October – The second man charged with the murder of Dr. Victor Chang, Phillip Lim, is found guilty.
5 November – Prime Minister Paul Keating announces that the coming election would be a poll on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and pledged that if the Coalition won, Labor would allow the GST through the Senate.
19 November – With the implications of Fightback! increasingly scrutinised and condemned, and elements in the Coalition "panicking", Federal Opposition Leader John Hewson declares that he would resign rather than abandon the GST.
23 November – Prime Minister Paul Keating announces the end of the ban preventing homosexual men and women from serving in the Australian Defence Force[2]
25 November – The High Court of Australia rules that Independent Phil Cleary had been ineligible to stand for Wills as he was an Education Department employee on unpaid leave ("officers of the Crown" cannot stand for Parliament). His Labor and Liberal opponents were also declared ineligible, as they both held dual citizenship.
7 December – The third series of the British children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends gets its official launch in Australia starting off being released on home video prior to transmitting on Australian television on 15 February 1993. The Australian releases also include Michael Angelis' later narrations of the first sixteen episodes which were first heard when the third series was first broadcasting on ITV in its country of origin. It was also the first time that Angelis' later narrations were released on home video and was also the last time the series was released by Video Selection Australia.
18 December – Federal Opposition Leader John Hewson unveils Fightback Mark II which includes abandoning the GST on basic food items and childcare and the threat to cut off the dole after 9 months.
22 December – The men who murdered heart surgeon Dr. Victor Chang are each sentenced to 20 years jail.
Adelaide receives it highest annual rainfall on record, totalling 883.2 millimetres (34.77 in).[3]
The first WOMADelaide is held at Botanic Park as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts. It featured Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Youssou N'Dour, Trio Bulgarka and Martenitsa, Archie Roach, Crowded House & Penguin Café Orchestra[5]
Geelong kick the highest VFL/AFL score against the Brisbane Bears of 37.17.239
7 May – Exactly 100 years to the day of their first senior-level match, Collingwood meets Carlton in a rematch of that game at the MCG. Carlton wins by 33 points.
12 July – Gerard Barrett wins the men's national marathon title, clocking 2:16:46 in Brisbane, while Jennifer Dowie claims the women's title in 2:40:40.
26 September – West Coast Eagles (16.17.113) defeat Geelong (12.13.85) in the first non-Melbourne –only Grand Final, to win the 96th AFL premiership. It is the first time that the VFL/AFL premiership has left Victoria.
