Category Archives: Australian immigration and asylum

‘Disrespectful and wrong’: lawyers slam Coalition’s push to restore power to deport Aboriginal non-citizens

Posted on by

Federal government’s appeal against the release of NZ man due to his claim of Aboriginality is being criticised as ‘a significant step backwards’

The Morrison government’s plan to restore its power to deport Aboriginal non-citizens has been criticised as “disrespectful and wrong” and a “significant step backwards” in the recognition of Aboriginal societies.

Both claims are made in submissions to an appeal by the federal government to overturn the landmark Love and Thoms decision.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Australia to reopen international border on 21 February

Posted on by

Scott Morrison announces all fully vaccinated visa holders will be able to enter, two years after Covid border closure

Australia will open its border for fully vaccinated tourists and all visa holders, a decision branded “bittersweet” by those who have missed funerals in recent weeks due to ongoing restrictions.

Scott Morrison on Monday announced the nation would open to all fully vaccinated visa holders, including tourists, on 21 February, almost two years after borders were first closed.

Continue reading...

Parent company of Nauru offshore operator fails to file reports in apparent breach of corporations law

Posted on by

Asic registers ‘report of misconduct’ against Canstruct owner Rard No 3 for failing to lodge financial reports with the corporate regulator

The parent company of the firm that runs Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru has failed to lodge financial reports with the corporate regulator on time, in an apparent breach of corporations law.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has confirmed that it has registered a “report of misconduct” against Rard No 3, the Brisbane-based company that wholly owns Canstruct International, following the Guardian’s inquiries. The potential penalty for filing a report late is a fine of more than $25,000.

Continue reading...

‘No vax, no play’: surfer Kelly Slater won’t be let into Australia if he’s not vaccinated against Covid

Posted on by

World Surf League events are due in Victoria and WA but federal health minister says position on coronavirus vaccine is ‘pretty clear’ following Novak Djokovic visa saga

Surfing great Kelly Slater could be the next big name in sport to be refused the right to compete in Australia, with the federal health minister saying the 11-time champion will not be allowed into the country if he is not vaccinated against Covid.

Slater, who has not publicly disclosed his Covid vaccination status, has aired some controversial views on the Covid vaccine, including an Instagram comment in October that claimed he knew “more about being healthy than 99% of doctors”.

Continue reading...

Australia live news update: Novak Djokovic federal court decision expected today; ‘difficult three weeks’ ahead for NSW amid Covid surge

Posted on by

Government argues Serbian tennis star has become ‘icon’ for anti-vax groups as federal court adjourns; Victoria records 13 Covid-19 deaths and 28,128 new cases; Perrottet warns of ‘difficult three weeks’ as NSW records 20 deaths and 34,660 new cases; Queensland records three deaths and 17,445 new cases; ACT records two deaths and 1,316 cases. Follow all the day’s news here

In further Australian Covid news, the Morrison government has announced $24m in new funding to widen the use of telehealth for GPs and other specialists. The funding is a direct reaction to the infection rate from the Omicron outbreak. AAP reports:

The $24m will also cover the continued supply of personal protective equipment, such as masks, respirators, face shields and gowns for face-to-face consultations including patients that have tested positive through a rapid antigen test.

The latter aligns with national cabinet’s January 5 decision that RAT tests no longer need to be confirmed by a PCR test.

Continue reading...

Novak Djokovic visa: Australian minister Alex Hawke says risk of ‘civil unrest’ behind cancellation

Posted on by

Hawke says tennis champion is ‘perceived by some as a talisman of a community of anti-vaccine sentiment’

Tennis champion Novak Djokovic, who has been described as a risk to “civil unrest” and a “talisman of anti-vaccination sentiment”, may never get the chance to defend his Australian Open title, facing a three-year ban from the country ahead of a last-ditch court challenge to stay.

Australia’s immigration minister, Alex Hawke, personally cancelled the unvaccinated world No 1’s visa, arguing his presence in Australia could incite “civil unrest” and encourage others to eschew vaccination against Covid-19.

Continue reading...

Australia’s first-dose vaccination reaches 95%; Djokovic back in hotel detention – as it happened

Posted on by

Health minister Greg Hunt calls vaccine levels a sign of hope; tennis star returns to detention in Melbourne’s Park Hotel. This blog is now closed

Hillsong church says the singing and dancing at their youth summer camp bears no resemblance to a music festival. This is Sian Cain’s piece from yesterday – somehow I’d missed seeing the video footage.

Oh yeah, totally doesn’t look anything like a music festival:

Continue reading...

Novak Djokovic: Australia cancels tennis player’s visa before Australian Open

Posted on by

Immigration minister Alex Hawke revokes Serbian player’s visa

Novak Djokovic’s Australian visa has again been cancelled just days before the start of the Australian Open.

On Friday, the Australian immigration minister, Alex Hawke, exercised a personal power to cancel Djokovic’s visa, likely to result in the world No 1’s deportation and putting him out of contention for the grand slam tournament barring an against-the-odds court victory.

Continue reading...

Australia news live update: NSW and Victoria each record 21 Covid deaths; cases in hospital top 3,700; $1,000 fines in NSW for not reporting positive RATs

Posted on by

NSW records 34,759 Covid cases and 2,242 hospitalisations on state’s deadliest day; Victoria reports 40,127 cases with 946 in hospital as more than 6,600 health workers furloughed, Queensland 22,069 cases and 525 in hospital, Tasmania 1,583 cases and 22 in hospital; $1,000 fines for not reporting positive rapid antigen tests in NSW. Follow all the day’s news

In New South Wales, four people have been rescued after a ute was swept into a flooded creek in the Hunter Valley last night.

Emergency services were called to Wells Gully Road at McCulleys Gap late last night, after the ute was swept off the spillway into Sandy Creek. A 49-year-old man, a 16-year-old boy, and two girls aged 14 were forced to climb on to the roof of the car after it began to sink in strongly flowing flood waters.

He has his own philosophy if he thinks like that ... he’s the most healthiest guy, he takes care of his life ... he’s playing tennis and he wants to stay. And I know that he’s doing everything to stay healthy to take care of his body, so ... if he’s not, he doesn’t want to, that’s his choice.

So, what’s the problem? You know, the vaccination – the vaccination, it’s not that I’m against it of course I’m not ... it’s not the point. If he’s healthy, his PCR is negative, why he cannot play?

I cannot say the ... all issues I don’t know exactly I’m reading in the newspapers. I didn’t talk to Novak about that. So I really cannot say anything. What I can say, that Judge Kelly [has] decided that Novak is free. So for me, this is closed book.

He didn’t know. Probably he didn’t know it, because when he realised [about] isolation, then he go to isolate ... because he didn’t know anything about that, He ... I really cannot say but it’s maybe the best is to ask him.

Continue reading...

How Australia’s handling of Djokovic exposed its flawed immigration system to the world

Posted on by

Money, media attention and fame will protect the tennis player from the same fate as those confined to years in detention by arbitrary and arcane law

Novak Djokovic has claimed victory in one court, and is back on one more familiar.

But as he prepares for the Australian Open at Melbourne Park, he does so with a Damoclean sword hanging above his head.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Australian Border Force investigating whether Novak Djokovic made false travel claim

Posted on by

Djokovic declared he had not travelled for 14 days before entering Australia, a claim apparently contradicted by social media posts. His visa was cancelled, then reinstated on Monday

The Australian Border Force is investigating whether Novak Djokovic incorrectly declared he had not travelled and would not do so for two weeks before his flight to Australia, in the latest twist in the tennis star’s visa cancellation saga.

Questions have been raised about the declaration completed by an agent for Djokovic, with social media posts seemingly showing he was in Belgrade on Christmas Day before flying to Australia from Spain on 4 January.

Continue reading...

Novak Djokovic: refugees hope tennis star’s hotel detention will cast light on their ‘torture’

Posted on by

‘We came for safety, not to play tennis’. Refugees and asylum seekers speak out against their harsh treatment

Novak Djokovic’s wrangling with authorities over entering Australia has inadvertently highlighted a different plight: those of the refugees and asylum seekers stuck for months, and years, at the Park Hotel.

The infamous detention hotel in Carlton, Melbourne, where the tennis star is likely to spend the weekend as he awaits a court hearing over his visa cancellation has been described by detainees as a “torture cell”.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Australian Open players given exemptions similar to Novak Djokovic under investigation

Posted on by

Home affairs minister Karen Andrews says border force officials received intelligence about other players who may not have met entry requirements

The Australian Open could be thrown into further disarray with the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, revealing other international players and officials are being investigated after Novak Djokovic’s visa was cancelled.

Andrews also defended the government’s treatment of Djokovic, who is in a Melbourne detention hotel waiting for a legal hearing, rejecting his family’s accusation the government was “keeping him captivity”.

Continue reading...

‘Turn the planes around’: Māori leader says New Zealand should block Australian deportations

Posted on by

Chair of National Māori Authority says country should adopt John Howard’s playbook or risk sparking local gangland wars between deported criminals

A prominent Māori leader has called for a dramatic response to what he labels Australia’s attempts to turn New Zealand into a “dumping ground” for criminals, suggesting Jacinda Ardern’s government should “turn the planes around”.

The executive chairman of the National Māori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, also raised concerns about a potential increase in gun violence in Auckland, saying the city “could see gangland wars similar to those that occurred in both Sydney and Melbourne in the early 2000s if we are not careful”.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

UK warned not to replicate Australia’s immigration detention centres

Posted on by

Letter from detainees urges MPs not to back nationality and borders bill to be debated in parliament this week

Two former detainees in Australia’s notorious offshore immigration detention centres have issued a “dire warning” to UK parliamentarians ahead of a vote to replicate these centres this week.

They are urging MPs not to back the nationality and borders bill which will be debated in parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday. If passed into law in its current form it will diminish refugee protection. Large-scale reception centres are planned and the legislation includes a provision for housing asylum seekers offshore while their claims are considered.

Continue reading...

How dangerous is the Omicron variant?

Posted on by

The Omicron variant of Covid has prompted governments around the world to reintroduce border restrictions, with Australia shutting the border to southern Africa and delaying the reopening date for international students and visa holders. The federal government has called for calm, describing the variant as ‘manageable’, but what do we actually know about it?


Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to medical editor Melissa Davey about what scientists have discovered so far about Omicron and our evolving approach to combating Covid variants

Read more:

Continue reading...

British woman wins legal battle against Australia’s ‘backpacker tax’

Posted on by

Australia’s high court finds the higher rate of tax for working holiday makers is discriminatory and breaches treaty with UK

A British backpacker who worked as a waiter in Sydney has won a long-running legal dispute against Australia’s “backpacker tax” in its highest court.

On Wednesday the high court ruled in favour of Catherine Addy, finding the tax which slugged working holiday-makers thousands of dollars more than Australians discriminated against her on the basis of her nationality and infringed a treaty Australia signed with the UK.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

‘Lives at risk’ in Melbourne detention hotel after three asylum seekers test positive for Covid

Posted on by

Detainees have not been vaccinated and socially distancing is ‘impossible in the conditions they’re in’, advocates say

An asylum seeker inside a Melbourne hotel being used as an “alternative place of detention” by Australian Border Force says detainees are frustrated and scared after three of them tested positive for Covid.

Mustafa Salah, 23, has spent the better part of eight years inside Australian detention facilities offshore and within its borders.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Calls for asylum seekers to be freed from detention after Melbourne guard tests positive for Covid

Posted on by

Jeroen Wiemar downplayed the potential for spread at the Broadmeadows facility but advocates fear serious outbreak

Asylum seeker advocates are calling for people held in immigration detention to be released into the community after Victorian health officials revealed a guard at a facility in Melbourne had tested positive for Covid-19.

Victoria’s Covid commander, Jeroen Wiemar, on Sunday confirmed at least one coronavirus case at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accomodation centre in Broadmeadows in Melbourne’s north.

Continue reading...

Reza Barati’s parents sue Australia over son’s murder on Manus

Posted on by

Iranian asylum seeker’s family seek damages for wrongful death and mental harm

The parents of the asylum seeker Reza Barati are suing the Australian government over his murder in an offshore detention centre.

The 23-year-old Iranian was beaten to death by guards and other workers during a violent confrontation at the Manus Island detention centre in 2014.

Continue reading...