Category Archives: Australian politics

Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live: Brittany Higgins’ mother tells court hearing of her daughter’s alleged rape was a ‘mother’s worst nightmare’

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The defamation action against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson was due to finish on Thursday but may extend until Monday. Follow the latest news and updates from the trial today

  • A warning for readers: this blog contains graphic details of allegations of sexual assault.

Defence liaison officer told Higgins found in ‘state of undress’, court hears

Payne gave evidence that early in the week following the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, he had been told by minister Linda Reynolds’s chief-of-staff, Fiona Brown, about an incident involving Lehrmann in Parliament House.

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Labor targets student and some worker visas in overhaul of Australia’s temporary migration program

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Government says temporary migration system is ‘broken’ and changes to student and skilled worker visas are needed to address exploitation

The Albanese government will lift the bar for international students and some workers to get a visa and as it seeks to overhaul what it says is Australia’s “broken” temporary migration program.

A new 10-year temporary migration strategy to be released on Monday will include moves to crack down on the use of student visas as a “back door” entry for employers looking to import low-skilled workers, while the government will also create new visas targeting highly skilled workers, particularly those in growth industries. It comes with the government flagging that overseas migration has peaked and is set to fall in the next 12 months.

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Annastacia Palaszczuk’s anointed successor, Steven Miles, likely to face challenge, say Queensland Labor MPs

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While deputy premier is considered the frontrunner, suggestions his two rivals may team up would make vote ‘incredibly close’

Senior Queensland Labor figures say they expect a contested ballot for the party leadership, despite attempts to rally support behind the deputy premier, Steven Miles, to avoid a messy contest to succeed Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Miles declared his intention to run for the Labor leadership on Sunday, just hours after Palaszczuk announced she would retire from politics and endorsed him as her successor.

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Steven Miles confirms run for Queensland Labor leader – as it happened

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Palaszczuk reveals she changed her mind in recent weeks

It was only a couple of months ago that Annastacia Palaszczuk insisted she would lead the Labor party to next year’s state election.

I feel refreshed, I feel energised and I’m absolutely determined to lead the party and this government to the next election. I just want to make that very clear to everybody.

In 2015 Annastacia promised good, decent government for the people of Queensland. That’s exactly what she’s delivered for the last nine years. Congratulations on your premiership. You are one of the true Qld Labor greats

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Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk retires from politics

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Labor leader says state is ‘in good shape’ and ‘now is the time for me to leave’ following months of speculation about her future

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has announced her retirement from politics, saying she had “given my all” and “now is the time for me to leave”.

Palaszczuk made the announcement at a press conference on Sunday following months of speculation about her future.

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Foreign investors who snap up Australian homes to face higher taxes

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Fees for foreign investors who leave properties vacant will double and taxes will triple for those who buy existing houses

Foreign investors in Australia will face higher fees and steeper penalties for buying existing homes and leaving them empty as the government aims to address housing affordability.

The federal government on Sunday announced new rules tripling taxes for foreigners who buy existing houses in Australia and a doubling in fees for those who leave dwellings vacant.

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Bill Shorten says it would have ‘helped’ if high court released reasons for indefinite detention ruling earlier

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High court demolished indefinite detention system and ‘within one month the Albanese government’s resolved it’, Labor minister says

Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten said it would have been “helpful” if the high court had given its reasons for ruling indefinite detention was unconstitutional at the same time it handed down its decision.

The Albanese government has spent the last month weathering criticism it was too slow to react to the high court’s decision, which overturned a 20-year precedent allowing the government to indefinitely detain refugees and migrants it could not deport.

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Anthony Albanese announces plan to reduce immigration levels following Covid influx

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Overhaul follows once-in-a-generation review which found immigration system ‘badly broken’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has flagged a major plan to return immigration to what he believes is a sustainable level after a post-Covid influx.

Immigration will be scaled back to what are considered sustainable levels hand-in-hand with a crackdown on abuses of Australia’s intake of overseas students.

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Sixth former immigration detainee arrested in Melbourne for allegedly breaking curfew

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Government scrambles to respond to last month’s high court ruling which led to the release of at least 148 detainees

A sixth former immigration detainee has been arrested in Melbourne after being released due to last month’s high court ruling.

A 36-year-old Eritrean-born man was arrested after allegedly failing to comply with a curfew, the Australian federal police said in a statement on Friday night.

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The defamation trial gripping Australia: Bruce Lehrmann, Brittany Higgins and the witnesses so far

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An allegation of rape, fiercely denied, in a ministerial office is being interrogated by weeks of testimony and cross-examination in a defamation trial brought by the accused

It has become one of Australia’s most convoluted and damaging political sagas, polarising the public.

An allegation of rape, fiercely denied, in a ministerial office in Parliament House has been discussed in news reports, interviews, speeches, and reams of commentary. It was examined in an aborted criminal trial, covered in four separate inquiries and now the first of several related civil cases is again calling witnesses and poring over evidence.

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Australian government spent $52m more on welfare calculator after finding a more effective alternative

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Services Australia paid Infosys almost $200m over four years before technology was written off as a failure

The federal government spent $52m on a failing welfare calculator even after being told there was a more accurate, simple and reliable option available.

In all, Services Australia paid $191m over four years to the multinational company Infosys for a calculator that processed only 784 aged care claims before being written off as a failure in late July.

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Australia’s freedom of information system ‘dysfunctional and broken’, inquiry finds

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Senate panel’s Labor members disagree with report, saying opposition-led probe failed to acknowledge Coalition’s ‘longstanding attempts to weaken’ FoI laws

Australia’s freedom of information regime has become “dysfunctional and broken” after years of funding and resourcing neglect and chronic backlogs caused in part by a pro-secrecy culture within the bureaucracy, a Senate committee has found.

The recent resignation of the freedom of information commissioner, who was less than 12 months into a five-year term, has also been described as a “symptom” of the troubles faced by the system designed to make federal government processes transparent.

The watchdog has been facing increasing scrutiny in recent years as a result of an ever-growing backlog of requests to review FoI decisions, hampered by bureaucratic and legislative roadblocks.

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Australia news live: Daniel Andrews fires up over ‘Dictator Dan’ moniker; festival-goers warned about heatwave conditions

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Former Victorian premier gives first interview after resignation, saying ‘the haters hate and the rest vote Labor’. Follow the day’s news live

James Ashby to stand for One Nation in Queensland seat

James Ashby, the chief of staff to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, will stand for the party in the seat of Keppel at next year’s Queensland state election, AAP reports.

The Nationals are dead in Queensland’s parliament while the Liberals are lurching further left in their attempts to secure inner-Brisbane seats.

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Australia to train Papua New Guinea police as two nations strike new security deal

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PNG prime minister, James Marape, said the historic deal did not mean his country was picking between China and the west

Australia will help train Papua New Guinea police as part of a wide-ranging security deal signed on Thursday.

The prime minister of PNG, James Marape, said the “historic” deal did not mean his country was picking between China and the west at a time of growing rivalry for influence across the Pacific.

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Linda Reynolds sues ACT government and former chief prosecutor

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Liberal senator says widely reported letter by Shane Drumgold to AFP caused significant ‘loss and damage’

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has launched another high-profile defamation action, this time against the ACT government and former chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold.

A writ lodged in the West Australian supreme court on Monday says Drumgold sent a letter accusing the senator of “disturbing conduct” during Bruce Lehrmann’s rape trial.

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Final question time of the year – as it happened

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MPs don casual wear for late-night sitting

Given the late sitting (the house has been doing “family friendly” hours for most of the year, which has made sittings past 8pm or 8.30pm rare) there were a few more casual looks on the benches than we are used to.

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Israeli ambassador ‘very sad’ about rise in antisemitic incidents in Australia

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Amir Maimon urges government ‘to take all necessary measures’ to ensure ‘different people of different faiths’ feel secure

The Israeli ambassador says he is “very sad” about a rise in antisemitic incidents in Australia and has urged the government to “take all necessary measures” to ensure people of different faiths and backgrounds feel safe.

Amir Maimon said that, in particular, he was “so, so upset” about the presence of pro-Palestine protesters at a Melbourne hotel where relatives and friends of Hamas-held hostages were staying last week.

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Two people remain in jail for welfare debts that Centrelink may have been calculated unlawfully

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The cases are probably wrongful convictions and prosecutors should facilitate appeals, a legal expert says

Two people are in jail after Centrelink used unlawful calculations to accuse them of overclaiming welfare benefits, a watchdog has revealed.

On Monday the ombudsman released its second report on the income apportionment method, calling on Services Australia to waive 100,000 debts that may have been incorrectly calculated and revealing the “traumatic” impact on those convicted of offences related to welfare debt.

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Australia politics live: Albanese government strikes deals on NDIS, GST and health reform at national cabinet meeting

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Follow the day’s news live

Nature repair bill ‘proof’ good-faith negotiations can work, says Bandt

The interview moves to the nature repair bill, which Tanya Plibersek won support for, after making a deal with the Greens. Adam Bandt says it is further proof that good faith negotiations can work:

The Greens pressure has worked. And the Greens have secured some significant wins. There’s been a blow against new gas and oil projects. Previously you could frack areas, so drill down to extract gas, including in farmland, and the government didn’t even have to consider whether that was going to affect our precious water supplies.

We know in many places it would have, that’s why so many farmers have been against fracking.

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Labor and Greens strike deal to establish nature repair scheme

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Legislation being debated in the Senate will create a market to encourage private spending on projects that protect and restore biodiversity

The Albanese government and Greens have struck a deal to establish a nature repair scheme in exchange for fast tracking an expansion of the water trigger to all unconventional gas projects.

The deal would also prevent trades in a new nature market from being used as offsets for other destruction of habitat.

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