Category Archives: Australian politics

Australia left with few diplomatic levers after three citizens detained in Iran

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Canberra’s adherence to a hawkish US policy has undermined its ability to negotiate with the paranoid and sanctions-squeezed regime in Tehran

It was the trip of a lifetime, a globe-trotting adventure halfway across the world, chronicled online for family and friends back home and for followers online.

But in the eyes of the regime in Tehran – squeezed by sanctions and paranoid about the motives of outsiders – the act of flying a drone near a military installation on the outskirts of the Iranian capital appeared as an act of espionage.

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Environment officials sensitive about Angus Taylor grasslands meeting, emails show

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Before the meeting an official asked about the Taylor company being investigated for alleged illegal land clearing

Department of the environment officials were acutely sensitive about meeting Angus Taylor over critically endangered grasslands while his family’s company was being investigated for alleged illegal land clearing in New South Wales, according to internal emails.

The information is revealed in correspondence that had previously been partially redacted from documents obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws in June this year.

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Labor labels Coalition’s drug-testing plan ‘demeaning’ – politics live

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Scott Morrison accused of trying to force jobseekers to pee in a cup because he wants to pick fights with the opposition. All the day’s news, live

George Brandis has been spotted in the building.

We are not sure why our man in London is here, but no doubt it is all very terribly important.

Pauline Hanson is speaking to Sky News about a speech she is giving on family law reform, where she is calling for 50/50 joint custody of children, from the moment of separation.

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Scott Morrison says he is ‘puzzled’ by opposition to welfare drug testing

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PM defends drug testing proposal, which is struggling to attract support in parliament

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, says he is “puzzled” by the widespread opposition to the idea of drug testing welfare recipients, as the government struggles to win over Senate support for the plan.

Saying he believed that drug testing those on Newstart and Youth Allowance could help people address substance abuse problems and get into the workforce, Morrison emphasised the proposal was a trial.

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Crossbench senator pushes to fix ‘shameful’ historic wrong against Timor-Leste

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Centre Alliance’s Rex Patrick wants to overturn the decisions that limit Australia’s exposure to international courts

The crossbench senator Rex Patrick will push to fix a historic wrong stemming from the “shameful” treatment of Timor-Leste during oil and gas negotiations by overturning decisions that limit Australia’s exposure to international courts.

In 2002, the then Howard government decided to limit Australia’s acceptance of the compulsory jurisdiction of the international court of justice and international tribunal for the law of the sea.

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‘Show some spine’: Jacqui Lambie returns to parliament with John Setka ultimatum

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The Senate powerbroker warns if the union boss does not resign, the Coalition’s ‘ensuring integrity’ bill will pass

The Senate powerbroker Jacqui Lambie has returned to Canberra following the parliamentary break with one message.

Either union boss John Setka resigns, or the government’s controversial ‘ensuring integrity’ bill will pass, with her vote.

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Home affairs data ‘gives lie’ to Coalition’s refusal to let Biloela Tamil family stay

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Fifty-two refugees and asylum seekers in offshore detention have received temporary protection visas or safe haven enterprise visas

Some 52 refugees and asylum seekers in offshore detention have received temporary protection visas or safe haven enterprise visas, according to new statistics that fly in the face of the Morrison government’s refusal to allow the Biloela Tamil family to stay.

The home affairs department has revealed to a Senate inquiry that of the 3,127 people classified as “illegal maritime arrivals” who have been taken to a regional processing country since 2011, some 52 have received visas and now face legal limbo if banned from permanent settlement in Australia.

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Biloela Tamil family’s deportation blocked until at least Friday

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Federal court in Melbourne extends injunction preventing the removal of the family from Christmas Island to Sri Lanka

Two Tamil asylum seekers and their Australian-born daughters will remain on Christmas Island until at least Friday afternoon after the federal court extended the injunction preventing the Australian government from deporting them back to Sri Lanka.

Priya, Nadesalingam and their two Australian-born children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, were sent to Christmas Island over the weekend after the court granted an injunction until 4pm on Wednesday preventing the government from deporting Tharunicaa until the application had been heard.

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Albanese says NSW Labor in ‘diabolical situation’ after Icac donation revelations

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‘I knew nothing about this,’ opposition leader says as he pledges a comprehensive review of the party’s structures

The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, says Labor in New South Wales is in a “diabolical situation” as he braces for further revelations from the state’s corruption hearings and pledges a “comprehensive” review of the party’s structures.

Saying the work of Icac needed to proceed “unencumbered” over the next six weeks, Albanese said the party would overhaul its procedures in NSW to ensure the “damaging” alleged conduct could not be repeated.

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‘We’re a polite town’: rage in Biloela as Tamil family’s fate in Peter Dutton’s hands

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Nadesalingam, Priya, Kopiga and Tharunicaa were given a five-day reprieve – then moved to Christmas Island

The officers came in the early morning.

On 5 March last year, Australian Border Force officers accompanied by Serco guards stormed the modest Biloela home of Tamil husband and wife Nadesalingam and Priya, and their two Australia-born daughters Kopiga, 2, and Tharunicaa, then just nine months old.

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My family lost Timor in the war. I found it in their memories | Luke Henriques-Gomes

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Some day, I hope to visit the country with my grandparents, whose belief in independence was always unshakable

In my family, the thought of Timor always lingered in the air.

At birthday dinners, or Easter or Christmas with the cousins (like all Timorese, cousins is an imprecise term), we would talk about the football or our jobs or studies.

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Labor says electric cars ‘unstoppable’ and Coalition wants to make Australia ‘like Cuba’

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Mark Butler signals Labor won’t retreat from policy following election defeat

The shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, has doubled down on the need for policy to drive the transition to electric vehicles in Australia, arguing electrification is “unstoppable” and declaring Australia will become like Cuba if the Coalition continues to obstruct progress.

In his first significant comments post-election about the controversy around Labor’s policies to curb emissions from vehicles, Butler has used a speech to a conference in Sydney to blast the brutal partisan campaign the Morrison government ran during the federal election contest.

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Asylum seekers held in Papua New Guinea blocked from talking to lawyers or doctors

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Inquiry hears that asylum seekers detained in PNG do not have access to phones, preventing medical evacuation

Asylum seekers held in a Papua New Guinean detention facility are being prevented from talking to lawyers and doctors, blocking them from medical evacuation to Australia approved under new medevac laws.

David Manne, the executive director of Refugee Legal, told a Senate inquiry on Monday that he had lost contact with one client who had been approved for urgent evacuation weeks ago but was then detained at the Bomana detention facility in Papua New Guinea.

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The asylum seekers held in a PNG prison have a choice: return to death or literally rot in jail | First Dog on the Moon

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They have already been suffering in inhumane conditions for six years. All this is well known and makes no difference

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Australia entering ‘second convict age’ as imprisonment rates soar

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Incarceration rates have risen 130% since 1985, according to new research by Labor MP and economist Andrew Leigh

Indigenous Australians are now more likely to be in prison than African-Americans, according to new research by Labor parliamentarian and economist Andrew Leigh warning that Australia has entered “a second convict age”.

Leigh’s new working paper finds that in 2018, around 43,000 Australians were in prison, a rate of 221 for every 100,000 adults – which he says is a significant jump since incarceration rates began climbing in 1985.

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G7: Scott Morrison to push for action against online terrorist content

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Australia’s PM flies into Biarritz, where he will have talks with world leaders – and a chat with Donald Trump

Scott Morrison will try to push countries further on taking action against terrorist and violent extremist material on social media during a series of meetings on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

Australia’s prime minister arrived in the French surfing town of Biarritz on Saturday night (early Sunday AEST) for the high-powered international forum.

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WA Labor conference: chaos after walkout during Welcome to Country

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WA Labor president apologises to Indigenous Australians for walkout by right faction union delegates

Western Australia’s Labor conference has turned chaotic after a large number of delegates walked out during a Welcome to the Country ceremony and tribute to the former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke.

It was reported a large portion of the crowd heckled Perth MP Patrick Gorman and the WA Labor president, Carolyn Smith, before storming out of the complex.

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Robodebt could target pensioners and ‘sensitive’ groups, leaked documents show

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Exclusive: Coalition needs to include over 65s and other disadvantaged welfare recipients to hit $600m budget plan

The Morrison government could target thousands of pensioners and other “sensitive” welfare recipients under a proposed expansion of the controversial robodebt scheme needed to achieve a promised $2.1bn in budget savings, according to confidential documents seen by Guardian Australia.

The documents, stamped “PROTECTED CABINET”, show the scheme would fall $600m short of its required budget savings unless it is expanded to hit “sensitive” groups originally quarantined from data matching.

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Australia to join US military effort to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz

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Troops, planes and warships to help guard the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East where tensions are flaring with Iran

Australia will send troops, planes and warships to help guard the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said Australia would make a “modest and time-limited” contribution to international efforts to protect freedom of navigation in the region.

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Instagram censors Melbourne artist’s anti-Beijing post but ignores trolls

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Badiucao accuses the social media firm of violating the free speech of people who speak up against China’s bullying

A Melbourne artist who posted anti-Chinese government work has had it pulled offline by Instagram, while death threats against him have remained uncensored.

The censorship of Badiucao – and later restoration – by Instagram came as Twitter and Facebook suspended more than 200,000 accounts deemed to be part of a “co-ordinated state-backed operation” of misinformation from the People’s Republic of China.

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