Cases of British-Australians Kylie Moore-Gilbert and Jolie King, and King’s Australian partner, Mark Firkin, were revealed last week
Iran’s judiciary has confirmed it has detained three Australian citizens, alleging they were arrested for spying and taking images from sensitive areas.
Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaeili confirmed the arrests in a press conference in Tehran.
Continue reading...Government accused of ‘demonising vulnerable people’ after only 100 of the 5,000 people on the program allowed to leave
Only 100 of the more than 5,000 people on the cashless welfare card trial have been allowed off the scheme, and the process for exemption has been labelled humiliating and hard to understand.
The government argues the card, which stores up to 80% of a welfare recipient’s payment for use at selected stores, leads to a reduction in violence and harm related to drinking alcohol, illegal drug use and gambling.
Continue reading...Some Liberals are concerned about the power to break up big companies being extended economy-wide
The Morrison government’s backbench economics committee has signed off on the long telegraphed “big stick” package but MPs, already uncomfortable about the proposal, have expressed reservations about how it might be amended in the Senate.
The package, which contains a power to break up big energy companies if they engage in price gouging, will go to the Coalition party room for approval on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Labor will resume demands for MP to make a statement to parliament on her links to Chinese Communist party groups. All today’s events in Canberra, live
Frank Bainimarama will meet Scott Morrison today – it is his first visit since becoming Fijian prime minister.
The parliament is all set up with the official welcome mat – there will be canons - and we’ll have the happy cool friends photo opportunity a little later this morning. It’s also the pair’s first meeting since Bainimarama criticised Morrison’s attitude at the Pacific Islands forum, but both have since said everything is fine.
The other big issue apparently keeping the National party up at night, is plant and legume based foods and liquids being sold with the same terminology as animal products.
Because apparently, vegetarians and vegans are very, very confused and don’t realise that almond milk doesn’t come from cows. As Helen Davidson reported on the weekend from the National party conference:
The Nationals meeting also voted in favour of a motion to lobby the federal government to change labelling requirements on vegan food, preventing products such as soy milk, almond milk and vegan meat from being branded as such.
Under current laws, only milk from cows can be labelled “milk” without an added qualifier.
Continue reading...Labor renews calls for embattled MP to explain alleged links to Chinese Communist party
Labor has renewed calls for Liberal MP Gladys Liu to explain links to Chinese associations despite Scott Morrison labelling the tactic “grubby”.
On Friday the controversy around the member for Chisholm grew after the Herald Sun reported that Liu had failed to file a return declaring a $39,675 donation to the Victorian Liberal party in 2015-16.
Continue reading...David Littleproud’s comments to parliament entirely at odds with earlier statement to Guardian Australia
Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, now says he accepts the science on manmade climate change, and “[I] always have”.
Littleproud’s comments to the House of Representatives on Thursday were entirely at odds with a written statement he made to Guardian Australia on Tuesday. In response to questions, Littleproud said: “I don’t know if climate change is man-made.”
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...‘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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...They have already been suffering in inhumane conditions for six years. All this is well known and makes no difference