Category Archives: Law (Australia)

Labor bill could lead to lengthy detention of migrants before deportation to countries paid to take them, committee warns

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Bipartisan human rights committee says there could be a ‘significant intervening period’ before non-citizens are accepted by other countries

The human rights committee has warned the Albanese government’s migration bill could result in lengthy spells in detention before non-citizens are deported to countries paid to take them.

In a report tabled on Wednesday the bipartisan committee, chaired by Labor MP Josh Burns, threw up significant roadblocks to the controversial bill and also queried the move by the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, to reimpose ankle bracelets and curfews on those released from immigration detention.

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Backflip on international student caps ‘baffling’, MP says – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Three million Australians are at risk of homelessness, a 63% increase since 2016, a new report from Homelessness NSW and Impact Economics has revealed.

By looking at household data including income, support and rental stress, the report found in 2022 there were 3.04m Australians now at risk of homelessness, an increase on the 1.87m reported in 2016.

1 in every five days the frontline services could not assist a family with children because they were so stretched.

Individuals without children were turned away 1 in every 2 days.

Unaccompanied young people and children without accommodation were turned away on 1 in 9 days.

I think more broadly, the government under Anthony Albanese has got an excellent record of managing relationships around the world, making genuine progress, whether it’s with China, whether it’s with American friends or others.

I think when it comes to Peter Dutton, I think he has a kind of a reckless arrogance which doesn’t lend itself to foreign policy and maintaining and managing some of these complex relationships.

I think he would be a risk to our economy, and that’s because that reckless arrogance, which has been a defining feature of his time as a politician over a long period of time now … [it] doesn’t lend itself to managing these relationships, which are so important to us.

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Detained while we decide: Australian government fights for power to detain protection visa applicants

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Two non-citizens want landmark NZYQ decision extended to people who remain in detention while their visa applications are processed

Australia’s constitution allows the government to detain non-citizens while their protection visa applications are processed, even if they will be released after a decision either way.

That is what the commonwealth will argue in two challenges before the high court on Thursday, urging it to reject the cases that seek to extend the landmark NZYQ decision on indefinite detention to a new cohort of people in immigration detention.

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Australia news live: Antic claims misinformation bill is bid to stop young Australians being ‘red pilled’ on social media

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Matt Keogh on Aukus, second Trump presidency

Matt Keogh was also questioned on what he thinks the challenges will be for the Australian government amid a second Trump presidency?

We understand regardless of who is in charge of the White House or what is happening across the globe, what matters to Australians is being able to make ends meet themselves.

We expect that to continue even under a Trump Presidency.

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Labor’s plan to re-impose ankle bracelet and curfew regime ‘very likely’ to face legal challenge, advocates say

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Measure alongside bill to facilitate removal of non-citizens criticised as heavy-handed proposals ‘that interfere with fundamental rights’

Legal challenges against the Albanese government’s plans to re-impose ankle bracelets and curfews on non-citizens released from indefinite immigration detention are “very likely” as the home affairs minister tries to contain the fallout from a scathing high court ruling.

Tony Burke introduced a bill on Thursday to facilitate the removal of non-citizens from Australia, including paying third countries to accept people released from immigration detention, which would pave the way for cancellation of their bridging visas and possible re-detention.

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‘We don’t want them in Australia at all’: Labor wants more powers to re-detain and remove non-citizens to third countries

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Tony Burke introduces bill to facilitate removal of unlawful non-citizens and regulations to reimpose ankle bracelets and curfews on those released after high court’s NZYQ decision

The Albanese government has introduced a bill to facilitate removal of non-citizens from Australia, including paying third countries to accept people released from immigration detention, triggering cancellation of their bridging visas and possible re-detention.

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, introduced the bill to “strengthen the government’s power to remove people who have had their visas cancelled to third countries” on Thursday.

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ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle to face trial after high court refuses attempt to appeal

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Former tax office employee who spoke publicly about the agency’s pursuit of debts has pleaded not guilty to all charges

A South Australian court’s decision that federal whistleblower protections do not grant immunity for criminal acts committed while gathering evidence will stand, after the high court refused Richard Boyle’s attempt to appeal it.

The decision on Thursday will mean Boyle, a former Australian Taxation Office official, will soon face a criminal trial in Adelaide for 24 offences, including the alleged use of his mobile phone to take photographs of taxpayer information and to covertly record conversations with colleagues.

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Media hysteria around Sofronoff report fuelled ‘mob mentality’, Bruce Lehrmann prosecutor Drumgold says

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Exclusive: Former ACT director of public prosecutions plans to return to NSW bar after painful experience of losing his ‘dream job’

The ACT’s former director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold believes “something went terribly wrong” with the Sofronoff report on Bruce Lehrmann’s prosecution, which resulted in Drumgold losing his “dream job”, a court battle over its findings and a subsequent integrity commission investigation.

Drumgold says media “hysteria” into the report’s findings fuelled a mob mentality against him, in what he described as a “terribly painful process”.

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Former Sydney schoolboy wins $1.2m in damages after bashing by gang of 12 students

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Court finds Fairvale high school failed duty of care in case of 14-year-old boy who was assaulted in 2017

A student subjected to an unprovoked and lengthy bashing by 12 of his classmates has been granted $1.2m in compensation.

The student at Fairvale high school in western Sydney was 14 years old when the other students prevented him boarding a bus on 16 October 2017.

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Crisafulli wedged on abortion as Katter party flags vote to criminalise terminations

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Exclusive: Robbie Katter says he will immediately sponsor a bill to amend the current legislation if the LNP is elected this month

The Queensland crossbencher Robbie Katter says he will consider forcing a vote to recriminalise abortion if the Liberal National party wins government at this month’s state election.

Katter says he will table legislation to wind back current laws with one option a “clean repeal” of Labor’s 2018 Termination of Pregnancy Act, a move that would return abortion to the 1899 criminal code.

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Former army lawyer David McBride appeals conviction claiming duty to disclose military secrets

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McBride has appealed his jail sentence of five years and eight months claiming he ‘blew the whistle on the unequal application of the law’ by the ADF

The former army lawyer David McBride has lodged his appeal in the ACT supreme court almost five months after he was sentenced to a maximum of five years and eight months in jail.

McBride pleaded guilty to three charges in November 2023 after the court upheld a commonwealth intervention to withhold key evidence the government argued had the potential to jeopardise “the security and defence of Australia”. The charges included stealing commonwealth information and passing that on to journalists at the ABC.

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Burke accuses Dutton of trying to ‘throw kerosene’ on public debate over Middle East

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Home affairs minister says he will cancel visas of people waving Hezbollah flags at rallies as experts point to nuanced community perspectives on group

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has accused Peter Dutton of seeking to “raise the temperature” of public debate over conflict in the Middle East, after protests on the weekend included some people holding the Hezbollah flag.

The opposition leader on Monday suggested parliament should be recalled to enact new anti-terror laws that would cover such actions, if it was not already illegal.

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Police ‘groomed’ Melbourne lawyer turned informer Nicola Gobbo, court hears

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Mounting deaths in Melbourne’s gangland wars heaped pressure on detectives, court told

Nicola Gobbo was a young and vulnerable barrister “looking for a way out” of dealing with gangland clients like Tony Mokbel when police saw an opportunity, her lawyers claim.

At 25 years old, the youngest woman in Victoria to sign the bar roll, suddenly found herself “neck deep” in the underworld and feared for her personal safety and wellbeing.

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Moira Deeming agrees her trans and gender-diverse views are ‘controversial’ as cross-examination begins

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Expelled Liberal MP testifies in high-stakes defamation case against Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto

Ousted Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming agreed her views on transgender and gender-diverse people were “controversial” within the party, as she began giving evidence in a high-stakes defamation battle.

Deeming is suing the state Liberal leader, John Pesutto, for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at the March 2023 “Let Women Speak” rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. She was expelled from the party less than two months later after initially being suspended.

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Revealed: criminals and unlicensed agents operating across Australia’s real estate sector

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Revelations come amid federal government push for additional scrutiny of sector through counter-terror financing and money-laundering laws

Convicted criminals and unlicensed agents are operating in the real estate sector across multiple states, a Guardian Australia investigation has found.

In New South Wales, the Guardian has established that two individuals convicted of dishonesty offences have been allowed back into the industry well within the usual 10-year prohibition, and that gaps in the law mean convicted money launderers are able to find their way back into the industry.

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Gold Coast man found not guilty of helping murder workmate’s estranged wife

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Jury finds Bradley Bell, 27, was not responsible for Kelly Wilkinson’s April 2021 death

A man accused of helping a workmate carry out the murder of his estranged wife has been found not guilty by a jury.

Bradley Bell, of Pimpama, faced trial in Brisbane supreme court after pleading not guilty to the murder of Kelly Wilkinson, 27, on 20 April 2021.

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Australia to ban life insurance companies from discriminating based on genetic testing results

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Albanese government says people have been reluctant to get life-saving early testing because of the risk of being refused insurance

Life insurance companies will be banned from discriminating against people based on genetic testing under federal government moves designed to encourage greater use of predictive technology in preventative health.

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, will announce on Wednesday that life insurers will be banned from using the results of predictive genetic testing in their underwriting assessments.

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Elizabeth Struhs death: accused sect members speak as extraordinary trial concludes

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Members of Toowoomba religious group accused of causing death of eight-year-old diabetic girl deliver closing statements

The extraordinary trial of 14 members of Toowoomba religious sect “the Saints” over the death of an eight-year-old girl has adjourned 58 days after it began.

The prosecution alleges the group caused the death of Elizabeth Struhs, who had type 1 diabetes, by counselling her father, Jason, to withdraw her insulin. The accused sect members argue their charges of murder and manslaughter amount to “religious persecution”.

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Linda Reynolds failed to offer a ‘basic human response’ after Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations, court told

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Higgins’ lawyer also tells defamation trial Reynolds was an unreliable witness and harassed Higgins by leaking documents

Linda Reynolds’ engaged in a “campaign of harassment” against her former staffer, Brittany Higgins, and had a “dogged focus” on the “wrong target”, a court has heard.

And Reynolds failed to offer a “basic human response” by following up with Higgins about her welfare after a meeting they had about her rape allegation, Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young SC, said.

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Closing arguments expected to be heard on Monday in Reynolds v Higgins defamation trial

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Linda Reynolds has argued that social media posts by former staffer contained mistruths that damaged her reputation – which Brittany Higgins denies

Closing arguments in a defamation case brought against Brittany Higgins by her former boss the Liberal senator Linda Reynolds are expected to be heard on Monday.

Reynolds is suing Higgins over social media posts made after the former political staffer alleged she had been raped by her colleague Bruce Lehrmann in the then defence minister’s office in Parliament House.

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