Category Archives: Australian politics

Immigration detention: Rohingya refugee NZYQ freed after high court case did not show remorse for raping 10-year-old

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Psychologist noted ‘risk factors’ for possible reoffending including ‘attitudes’ stemming from his own childhood abuse, court documents reveal

The plaintiff who overturned the legality of indefinite immigration detention in the high court was found to be owed protection because he experienced forced labour and his brother was abducted and killed in Myanmar.

Previously unreported details of the stateless Rohingya refugee, known as NZYQ, were contained in court documents published on Tuesday, including that the judge did not find he had shown remorse in relation to his conviction for the rape of a 10-year-old boy, despite pleading guilty. The documents also show a psychologist had noted “risk factors” for possible reoffending including “attitudes” stemming from his own childhood abuse.

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Labor to reconsider mandatory data retention laws for companies in light of major hacks

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New cyber security strategy cites business concerns at having to store large amounts of data for excessive periods of time, increasing breach risk

Following several high-profile data breaches in the past year, the federal government will review laws requiring companies to retain data as part of its new cyber security strategy.

Released on Wednesday, the 2023-30 strategy notes that data is increasingly used for ransom attacks and as a tool for coersion.

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‘Vulnerable’ Pacific countries must get maximum benefit from ‘loss and damage’ fund, Australian climate minister says

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Chris Bowen also says climate disaster fund will need to be bankrolled by broader-than-expected range of countries in speech ahead of Cop28

Australia’s climate minister, Chris Bowen, says Pacific nations and other countries vulnerable to climate catastrophe should be the major beneficiaries of “loss and damage” funding, and a broader range of countries should bankroll the international effort along with the private sector.

Bowen used a speech to a foreign policy thinktank on Tuesday night to signal Australia’s position ahead of Cop28, the looming United Nations-led climate talks, which get under way in the United Arab Emirates later this month.

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BoM provides El Niño update – as it happened

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Birmingham says China ‘doesn’t appear to be acknowledging the facts’

Shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham is speaking with ABC RN and is asked about sonar pulses from a Chinese warship that left one Australian naval diver injured.

The Australian navy and Australian defence force operates always with professionalism, and I’m confident that Australia’s version of events is a credible.

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Labor and Coalition team up to retrospectively authorise ‘unlawful’ use of material gathered by Australian agency

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Bill authorises previous uses of coercive powers, removing legal question mark that had dogged Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission

Labor and the Coalition teamed up to pass a bill retrospectively authorising potentially “unlawful” use of material gathered in special investigations by Australia’s most secretive law enforcement agency.

The bill is the third attempt to cure a long-running legal defect in the powers of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to conduct special investigations and operations.

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‘Respect the facts’: Beijing rejects Australian claims China sonar injured navy divers

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Chinese defense ministry insists its vessel ‘did not conduct any activity that could affect the Australian side’s diving operations’

The Chinese government has accused the federal government of “making trouble” with “rude and irresponsible” claims about the sonar incident that injured Australian navy divers last week.

Beijing overnight rebuffed Canberra’s version of the maritime altercation between two warships off Japan’s coast last Tuesday.

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Rift widens between NSW and federal Labor as Chris Minns demands state’s ‘fair share’

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Ahead of national cabinet, NSW premier waits for answers from Albanese government on protest policing and infrastructure funding

Tensions between the New South Wales and federal Labor governments are rising ahead of the final planned national cabinet of the year, with the state’s premier, Chris Minns, insisting he was not “whingeing” as he demanded more funding for police and infrastructure.

Minns said the federal government had so far failed to respond to his request for help paying the bill for policing the frequent protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, or for the “disappointing” infrastructure cuts unveiled last week.

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Australian retail lobby groups refuse to disclose amount of funding from tobacco and vaping industries

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Representatives for convenience and grocery stores tell Senate inquiry details of any funding were commercial in confidence

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Lobby groups representing convenience and grocery stores have refused to tell a Senate inquiry how much they receive in tobacco and vaping industry funding.

The failure to disclose industry funding follows public hearings into the public health (tobacco and other products) bill earlier in November and comes as concerns are raised about one lobby group having a parliamentary access pass.

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Jet trip followed guidelines, minister’s office says – as it happened

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Australians increasingly relying on credit cards as cost-of-living pressures rise

A survey from comparison site Finder has found an increasing number of Australians are turning to credit cards amid the rising cost of living.

Mounting pressure on households is seeing Aussies borrowing money to keep afloat.

Used responsibly, credit cards can be a great tool for earning rewards such as frequent flyer points and building your credit history.

But relying too heavily on them could cause you to go into a debt spiral which can be hard to bounce back from.

It symbolises the balance between utility and respect for the environment, mirroring our approach to space exploration.

It’s time for Australian science to take the next leap all the way up into space, like our roos do back home. Naming the new lunar rover ‘Roo-ver’ will reflect the Aussie spirit as we launch into this new endeavour.

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Albanese accuses China of ‘dangerous, unsafe and unprofessional’ behaviour in naval ship altercation

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Prime minister declines to confirm if he raised incident in his face-to-face meeting with Xi Jinping

Anthony Albanese has accused a Chinese naval ship of “dangerous, unsafe and unprofessional” behaviour after an altercation with an Australian vessel left one person injured.

But the prime minister has declined to confirm whether he raised the issue face-to-face with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Apec summit last week, only saying that the government had complained through “all the forums that are available”.

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Australia news live: ‘hunger for justice’ has swept the world, Assange’s father tells Melbourne pro-Palestine rally

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Organisers of Sydney pro-Palestine rallies say they have been attended by 30,000 people, as thousands gather in cities around the country. Follow today’s news updates live

Julian Assange’s father to address pro-Palestinian rally in Melbourne

A pro-Palestine rally will be addressed by the father of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, with organisers confident a large crowd is set to attend.

The Australian public are disgusted at the Albanese government’s refusal to call for ceasefire.

We’ve had people come who have never before been to a rally and the following week they return with their relatives and friends.

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‘Absolutely absurd’: lawyers criticise opposition proposal to re-detain immigration cases

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James Paterson refuses to back Peter Dutton’s plan to send people back to immigration detention but pushes alternative method of jailing them

The federal opposition’s home affairs spokesperson, James Paterson, has refused to back Peter Dutton’s suggestion the government could simply re-detain 93 people released from indefinite immigration detention after a landmark high court ruling.

But the Liberal frontbencher’s alternative proposal – to use terrorist-style preventative or continuing detention orders – has been lashed as “absurd” by leading lawyer Greg Barns SC who claimed there was no evidence any of the released detainees were at high risk of reoffending.

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Mulgrave byelection: Labor retains Daniel Andrews’ seat despite swing against Victorian government

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Dandenong mayor Eden Foster leading 54-46 on a two-party preferred basis after Saturday’s byelection

Victorian Labor has retained Daniel Andrews’ seat of Mulgrave despite a significant swing against the government in the former premier’s seat.

The Dandenong mayor, Eden Foster, was leading with more than 40% of the primary vote in Saturday’s byelection, which was down more than 10 percentage points from Andrews’ showing at last year’s state poll.

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‘Draconian’ conditions come into effect for 93 foreigners released after being illegally detained by Australia

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Labor says ‘significant number’ of released detainees were convicted of serious criminal offences as experts express concern over rushed bill

All 93 foreigners identified by Australia’s home affairs department as being affected by a recent high court judgment that found they were being illegally detained have now been released.

The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, confirmed on Saturday the 93 people had been released and that all of them would be forced to comply with strict visa restrictions, including wearing electronic monitoring devices.

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Australian naval divers injured after being subjected to Chinese warship’s sonar pulses

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Acting prime minister criticises Chinese ship’s ‘unsafe and unprofessional conduct’ after Australian sailors had requested it stay clear

Australian naval divers have been injured after an “unsafe and unprofessional” run-in with a Chinese warship.

The acting prime minister, Richard Marles, on Saturday said the Australian government had expressed “serious concerns” to Chinese officials after the HMAS Toowoomba encountered a People’s Liberation Army-Navy destroyer on Tuesday.

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Labor’s emergency laws after immigration detention ruling may amount to ‘extrajudicial’ punishment

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Legal experts say constitutional challenges to new laws are likely as Labor braces for possible compensation claims following high court decision

A legal challenge to emergency legislation responding to the high court’s decision on indefinite detention is likely, with advocates warning the Albanese government the changes may be unconstitutional.

Alison Battisson, the director of Human Rights For All, and David Manne, the executive director of Refugee Legal, have both warned the changes may amount to “extrajudicial” punishment.

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Australia news live: school strike for climate protests draw huge crowds in Melbourne and Sydney; Albanese says Apec leaders ‘very interested’ in Tuvalu deal

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‘A ceasefire is where we need to get to,’ Zoe Daniel says

Asked by RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas if she supports calls for a ceasefire, Zoe Daniel says:

If you call for a ceasefire, you’re letting down the Jewish community, if you don’t you’re allowing death and destruction to happen in Gaza.

At the end of the day, if I say to you right now, yes, I support ceasefire, that will make zero difference to what is happening in in Gaza.

I’m a former foreign correspondent. I know the logistics of this, of course, a ceasefire is where we need to get to, but you have a terrorist organisation in the middle of this. If there’s just a ceasefire, and there’s no capacity there to try to dismantle Hamas, does that allow Hamas to regroup? What does that actually lead to? That said, I’ve said to you before, very clearly, and I still stick to the position that the Israeli government has to adhere to international law and the rules of war, and I think, in some ways, has not been.

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Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin faces Senate grilling as Singtel denies it was to blame for outage

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Optus claimed on its parent company’s Singtel Internet Exchange was responsible, but Singtel says its upgrade was not the cause

The Optus chief executive, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, faces a grilling at a Senate hearing on Friday over the telco’s handling of last week’s 14-hour nationwide outage as both Optus and its parent company Singtel dispute who was to blame.

Bayer Rosmarin will be facing the Senate committee, chaired by the Greens communications spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, over two hours on Friday morning in the inquiry launched shortly after the Optus outage last week.

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Albanese government to consider further whistleblower protections amid calls for ‘robust’ dedicated authority

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Federal attorney general releases new consultation paper as the government moves toward releasing a second stage of public interest disclosure reforms

The federal government will consider whether whistleblowers should be protected for gathering evidence before disclosing possible wrongdoing, amid criticisms existing laws are not doing enough.

The need for a standalone whistleblower protection authority, and a financial reward system for those coming forward, are also issues up for consideration shortly before Christmas.

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Refugees in PNG told they will be evicted next week after Australian-sponsored housing bills not paid

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Australian-funded humanitarian program has not funded housing, food and medical services for over a year, providers say

Refugees and asylum seekers held by Australia in Papua New Guinea for 10 years will be evicted from their accommodation in a week – and have their groceries, medical and security services cut – because the bills for their accommodation, healthcare and food have not been paid for more than a year.

Many of the 64 men have been living without electricity, and some without food, for more than two weeks.

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