Pauline Hanson wins appeal against $250,000 defamation finding awarded to Brian Burston

Burston, a one-time senator for One Nation, was ordered to pay his former leader’s legal costs for the initial defamation case and appeal

Pauline Hanson has had a legal victory after overturning $250,000 in defamation damages awarded after she made claims about the conduct of a former New South Wales senator in her One Nation party.

Hanson was ordered to pay damages in October after the federal court said her comments on Nine’s Today program in March 2019 were “seriously damaging” to Brian Burston’s reputation.

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PwC lost track of number of client privilege claims allegedly used to stymie ATO investigations

Consulting firm couldn’t say how many times its former general counsel was involved in privilege claims made to tax office, Senate inquiry hears

PwC Australia lost track of who prepared dozens of client privilege claims that blocked the Australian Tax Office from gathering evidence for its investigations, a Senate inquiry has heard.

Earlier this week, the ATO published a timeline of the PwC scandal that confirmed years of frustration at the firm over allegedly withholding information related to multinational tax avoidance.

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Home affairs tried to water down report critical of ‘extraordinary’ counter-terror powers, documents reveal

Exclusive: Department engaged researchers to review its preventive detention of terrorists, only to attempt to remove their most serious criticisms

Department of Home Affairs officials told researchers to water down a key report that threatened to undermine the government’s use of “extraordinary” counter-terror powers allowing individuals to be imprisoned for a crime they have not yet committed, documents show.

Australia’s preventive detention regime for terror offenders, which allows individuals to be imprisoned for up to three years to prevent a future crime, has been described as “extraordinary” and disproportionate by the nation’s independent national security laws watchdog, who called for its abolishment in March and said it was causing Australia to become a “coarser and harsher society”.

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Sexual offence trials regularly rely on ‘rape myths’ and stereotypes of victim-survivors, NSW study finds

Analysis of trial transcripts shows prosecutors and defence still focus on conduct of victim-survivor

Prosecutors and defence lawyers regularly rely on stereotypes about how sexual violence victim-survivors should behave and “rape myths” during sexual offence trials in New South Wales, a study has found.

The study, which undertook the largest analysis of sexual offence trial transcripts in the state in 27 years, found many of the procedural reforms that started in the 1980s to improve the experience of sexual violence victim-survivors in the criminal justice system were working.

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High-profile man accused of Toowoomba rape to find out if he can access alleged victim’s old phone data

Prosecutors to consider request from man’s lawyer to access six months of data, despite pair not knowing each other until date of alleged offence

Prosecutors in the case of a high-profile man accused of rape will decide within a week how much data from the alleged victim’s mobile phone can be disclosed to the defence.

The crown had sought an explanation from the defence about its request for a data download and has now been provided with an answer.

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Catholic church seeks to stop family’s lawsuit over George Pell child abuse allegations

Melbourne archdiocese challenges legal ruling that would allow father of a choirboy to sue for damages

The Catholic church is seeking to challenge a legal ruling in Victoria that would allow the father of a choirboy to sue for damages over allegations of child sexual abuse by Cardinal George Pell.

The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, filed a claim against the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne and Pell. He claims to have suffered nervous shock after learning of allegations that Pell sexually abused his now deceased son in the mid-1990s.

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Australia news live: ‘nonsense’ to suggest Qantas has an outsized influence over Albanese government, Alan Joyce says

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Queensland to give free meningococcal B vaccine to infants, children and adolescents

The meningococcal B vaccine will be made free for infants, children and adolescents in Queensland.

After hearing the stories of heartbroken Queensland families, I had to act.

We know the meningococcal B strain can be lethal and – if a young person is lucky enough to survive the disease – it’s likely they will develop permanent and sometimes devastating complications.

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Foreign spies using sensitive court proceedings to collect information, Australia’s intelligence community says

Director general of national intelligence says NSI Act needs to be modernised but defended tough secrecy laws amid ‘unprecedented’ levels of espionage

Australia’s intelligence community believes foreign spies are using sensitive court proceedings as an “intelligence collection tool” while defending the need for tough secrecy laws.

Australia’s national security law watchdog, the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor, on Wednesday began public hearings examining the use of laws designed to protect sensitive information during court proceedings.

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Raw footage from Bruce Lehrmann’s Channel Seven interview subpoenaed in defamation case

Lawyers for Network Ten are examining footage from Spotlight interview as they prepare to defend themselves against Lehrmann’s defamation case

Lawyers for Network Ten are examining raw footage of Channel Seven’s recent interview with Bruce Lehrmann as they prepare to defend themselves against his defamation case.

Lehrmann is currently suing Network Ten, Lisa Wilkinson and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the federal court, alleging they defamed him by wrongly suggesting he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.

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Senior prison official’s court testimony at odds with government spin on Queensland youth detention

For months, the state government has defended conditions inside Cleveland, in the face of accounts by guards, judges and children documenting problematic practices

In a Townsville courtroom last month, a senior manager at the Cleveland youth detention centre sat in the witness box to answer questions about the prison’s systematic use of solitary confinement.

For months, the state government has defended conditions inside Cleveland, in the face of accounts by guards, teachers, youth workers, court documents, judges and children documenting problematic practices.

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Google ordered to hand over anonymous emailer’s information to former Victorian Labor candidate

Federal court orders account details be given to Nurul Khan so he can sue the person for defamation

Google has been ordered to hand over the account information and IP address of a person who a Victorian Labor candidate alleges defamed them in an email.

Nurul Khan was endorsed to run for the Labor party in last year’s state election, but an email littered with allegations against him was sent to ministers and news organisations on 9 November.

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Early robodebt critics outraged by how long Coalition persisted with unlawful scheme

Shocking to learn politicians and public servants ‘were basically just lying to us’, Andrew Wilkie says

Early critics of robodebt have said they are shocked, appalled and outraged by how long the Coalition government persisted with the unlawful scheme.

The independent MP Andrew Wilkie and former the administrative appeals tribunal member Terry Carney were responding to the release of the royal commission report on Friday.

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Bernard Collaery trial highlights ‘prohibitive’ and ‘onerous’ government secrecy restrictions, lawyers claim

Exclusive: Whistleblower’s legal team detailed the ‘profound’ cost of the commonwealth’s rules in inquiry into the effectiveness of the National Security Information Act 2004

The secrecy restrictions around Bernard Collaery’s prosecution were so severe that he was forced to obtain government approval for his lawyer to view evidence against him, communicate with his legal team in-person in secure rooms chosen by the commonwealth, physically transport documents around the country at exorbitant cost and compose drafts on commonwealth laptop computers at pre-approved locations.

The national security law watchdog is currently investigating the operation and effectiveness of the National Security Information Act 2004, which the federal government uses to protect sensitive information during court proceedings.

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Icac finds former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire engaged in serious corrupt conduct

Berejiklian stood down in 2021 after it was revealed she was in a ‘close personal relationship’ with Maguire, who was also found to be corrupt by Icac’s Operation Keppel

Former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has been found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct by the state’s corruption watchdog.

However the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) has not recommended charges be pursued against Berejiklian.

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Media must not confuse voters about Indigenous support for voice, Anthony Albanese says

PM reels off names of prominent yes campaigners backing ‘a moment of national unity’

Anthony Albanese has suggested the media has a “responsibility” not to confuse voters about support for the voice among First Nations people, arguing that Indigenous critics are outnumbered by supporters.

The prime minister told ABC Coffs Coast radio that Indigenous leaders have been campaigning for the voice “for a long period of time” as their preferred model of constitutional recognition.

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Home affairs withheld serious concerns about crime prediction tool during Benbrika case, court hears

Judge suggests there may have been ‘interference with administration of justice’ and government officials could be referred ‘to relevant authorities’

The Department of Home Affairs deliberately withheld information that raised serious questions about the reliability of a future crime prediction tool because it wanted to keep using it on other offenders, the Victorian supreme court has heard.

The supreme court justice Elizabeth Hollingworth is considering whether convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika should be subject to an extended supervision order while he is held in immigration detention, and the conditions of such an order.

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Australia politics live: Don Farrell warns delaying housing bill could lead to double dissolution election

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Chalmers to herald record job growth

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will no doubt take a dixer on this today – the Albanese government has “had the strongest job growth in the first year of any new government on record”.

The number of Australians with a job is now more than 14 million for the very first time.

Australia’s participation rate is 66.9% – the highest on record, primarily driven by record high participation for women (62.7%).

The share of women in work is at a record high – with the employment to population ration for women at 60.5%.

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Senator removed from party room – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

Liberal senator David Van is speaking to Sydney radio 2GB about independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s allegations in the Senate yesterday.

Thorpe withdrew the remarks to comply with the Senate’s standing orders but said she would be making a statement on the issue today.

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Australia politics live: Labor blocks Zoe Daniel’s push to ban gambling ads but promises ‘comprehensive’ response to issue

Tony Burke says Labor committed to strong consumer protections regarding online gambling and does not oppose principle behind independent’s bill

‘A sackable offence’

Here is how that “conversation” played out.

What we want understand now is whether this Labor minister was in fact complicit in politicising this event. That is unforgivable.

Not only that, misleading parliament is a serious offence, a sackable offence and standing by this minister, if she has misled parliament, has consequences.

You were in the Senate yesterday when Katy went through what happened and what I’d like to understand from you is how is it the two years after this event you are trying to make this somehow the problem of the current government when we were not even in government, not four years after this event occurred.

The real issue is the fact that a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted in our workplace and I would really like to focus on that is the main issue here because that is the main issue here, because that is the subject that matters.

What we are finding out now is what the minister knew and why her testimony to the Senate as different from that. There’s a lot of considerations here, I know people are talking about how this information came into the media and certainly the media has a lot of considerations to make.

There has to be respect for the parliament and the court and the law but that information is now out there and journalists need to make decisions about whether it is in the public interest.

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Liberal MPs break ranks to call for inquiry into Brittany Higgins’ leaked text messages

Andrew Bragg and Bridget Archer make call after Network Ten asks AFP to investigate alleged leaking of evidence in Bruce Lehrmann trial

Liberals Andrew Bragg and Bridget Archer have broken ranks to call for an inquiry into how Brittany Higgins’ text messages were leaked, with Bragg labelling debate in the Senate where the Coalition is pursuing Katy Gallagher “very ugly”.

The pair made the call after the finance minister denied misleading the Senate about her knowledge of Higgins’ allegation before it aired and Network Ten asked the Australian federal police to investigate how Higgins’ texts became public.

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