Category Archives: Law (Australia)

George Pell appeal: cardinal faces final high court decision – latest news

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Cardinal Pell’s child sexual assault conviction was upheld in the Victorian court of appeal. Now the high court will rule on whether he will stay in jail or walk free. Follow live updates

High court to decide cardinal’s fate

George Pell will not be in the court registry in Brisbane this morning. He is at Barwon Prison and will be informed of the judgment by his legal team.

We are now within 10 minutes of the judgment being delivered in Brisbane. We should have the news for you shortly after that.

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George Pell appeal: cardinal’s lawyers say jury was wrong to reject defence arguments

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High court justices hears arguments on why they should grant Pell leave to appeal his conviction for child sexual abuse

The high profile barrister Bret Walker SC has argued jurors who convicted Cardinal George Pell of child sexual abuse were wrong to reject arguments from his defence about the improbability of the offending occurring.

On Wednesday morning Pell’s final chance of appealing his verdict begun before the full high court bench of seven justices in Canberra. The court is yet to grant Pell leave to appeal his conviction – first, it is hearing arguments from Walker as to why the appeal should be allowed. It may grant or deny the appeal at any time.

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Chief medical officer warns against coronavirus xenophobia – politics live

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The fallout from last week’s leadership spill continues, with rebel MPs refusing to fall into line. All the day’s events, live

There is a real pattern emerging of Nationals MPs wearing green ties with dark blue suits, and really I can see why the party room is in revolt.

Josh Frydenberg is yelling again, and I can’t transcribe it, because GUESSWHOTHATFINANCIALGENIUSWASSIRTAXALOT is doing my head in, and really, you only get one life.

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High court rules Aboriginal Australians are not ‘aliens’ under the constitution and cannot be deported

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The four-to-three split decision giving Aboriginal Australians special status is a major defeat for the deportation powers of the home affairs department

The high court has decided that Aboriginal Australians are not aliens for the purpose of the constitution, a major defeat for the deportation powers of Peter Dutton’s home affairs department and a significant development in the rights of Indigenous Australians.

In a four-to-three split decision on Tuesday the high court ruled that Aboriginal people with sufficient connection to traditional societies cannot be aliens, giving them a special status in Australian constitutional law likely to have ramifications far beyond existing native title law.

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Australian paedophiles pay as little as $15 for online abuse of children in Philippines

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Australian federal police say livestreaming of children performing sexual acts marks ‘alarming shift’


Australian paedophiles are paying as little as A$15 for children to perform sexual acts online while being filmed in the Philippines, according to the head of the Australian federal police team in Manila.

Senior officer Andrew Perkins told Guardian Australia there was an “alarming shift” from previously more common types of “sex tourism” to “convenient and low-risk” online abuse of children which can be customised to the specific requirements of customers.

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Police ask Clover Moore for statement on Angus Taylor – politics live

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Sydney lord mayor approached by police investigating accusations the emissions reduction minister relied on a falsified document to attack her. Follow all the day’s political news live

That’s where we’ll leave the live blog for the day. Thanks for following along.

It’s been another messy day. Many say the medevac repeal has made it one of parliament’s darkest.

Another development on the Angus Taylor front.

The City of Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, has been approached by police to provide a statement for their investigation into accusations Taylor relied on a falsified document to attack her travel-related emissions. The council said in a statement:

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Senate calls on government to expedite asylum claim of two gay Saudi journalists in ‘arbitrary’ detention

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Multiple global news organisations call for release of men, who fled their country only to become embroiled in Australia’s detention system

The Senate has passed a motion calling on the government to recognise the increased risk it has placed on two gay Saudi journalists by keeping them in detention after they claimed asylum last month.

Guardian Australia can reveal that multiple news organisations around the world have called for the release of the men, warning the Australian government they are watching the case closely.

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NSW police told 15-year-old to ‘lift your balls up’ in strip-search with no adult present

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Inquiry told of invasive searches on teens at Lost City music festival in Sydney, where only five of 30 cases had support person present

A 15-year-old boy was told to “hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch” and a police officer “ran his hands around” the buttocks of a 17-year-old during two of 25 potentially illegal strip-searches conducted at an underage music festival in Sydney, an inquiry has heard.

On Monday the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) began public hearings into the strip-search of “several young people” at the Lost City Music festival, an under-18s event held in Sydney in February.

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World-first mobile phone detection cameras rolled out in Australia

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New South Wales hopes to cut fatalities on the state’s roads by a third with devices that operate day and night in all weather

New South Wales rolled out mobile phone detection cameras on Sunday, hoping to cut the number of fatalities on its roads by a third over two years, transport authorities said.

The world-first mobile phone detection cameras, according to Transport for NSW, which manages the state’s transport services, operate day and night in all weather conditions to determine if a driver is handling a mobile phone.

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Food delivery bike couriers in Australia being underpaid by up to $322 a week

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Exclusive: Survey reveals almost all are paid per delivery and a quarter of riders have been in an accident

Food delivery bike couriers are being underpaid by up to $322 a week compared with minimum rates of pay and superannuation in the transport award, according to new union statistics.

The Young Workers Centre – an initiative of the Victoria Trades Hall Council – conducted a survey of more than 240 riders, revealing most are engaged on a “take-it-or-leave-it” basis and almost all are paid per delivery, with no minimum rates of pay.

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Australia braces for electric scooter boom as confusion reigns over state laws

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Some retailers are giving inaccurate advice to shoppers in states where it is illegal to ride e-scooters on public roads or footpaths

Retailers are preparing for a Christmas boom in the sale of electric scooters, even though it is illegal to ride them on public roads or footpaths in several states.

Federal and state regulation has struggled to keep up with the technology, leaving consumers at risk of inadvertently breaking the law.

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George Pell high court appeal: cardinal granted final challenge against child sexual abuse conviction

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Full bench of seven judges will decide on Cardinal Pell’s appeal, likely to be heard in 2020

Cardinal George Pell will have a final chance to overturn his conviction on historical child sexual abuse offences after the high court in Canberra agreed to hear appeal arguments in a special full court sitting.

A date for the appeal hearing is yet to be set but it is likely to be early in 2020, by the full bench of seven judges. Led by the high-profile silk Bret Walker SC, Pell’s legal team will argue that the majority of judges in Victoria’s court of appeal erred by finding in August that jurors were not unreasonable to believe the testimony of Pell’s victim.

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Australian newspapers black out front pages to fight back against secrecy laws

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United campaign by media companies highlights government moves to penalise whistleblowing and criminalise journalism

• Lenore Taylor: Concrete action rather than nice words are needed on press freedom

The front page of every newspaper in Australia was blacked out on Monday as part of a campaign against moves by successive federal governments to penalise whistleblowing and, in some cases, criminalise journalism.

The campaign, by the Australia’s Right to Know Coalition, follows raids on the ABC’s Sydney headquarters and the home of a News Corp journalist in June, the legality of which is being challenged in the high court.

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Ronan Farrow book on sale in Australia despite legal threat from journalist Dylan Howard

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One online distributor has withdrawn the #MeToo memoir, but other stores have stocked it, and the publisher insists it will not be withdrawn

Ronan Farrow’s book on the #MeToo movement has been withdrawn from sale in Australia by one online bookseller but was available in bookstores on Tuesday despite a legal threat from an Australian journalist who Farrow has previously alleged helped to protect the disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein from negative publicity.

The book, Catch and Kill, was released in Australia on Tuesday and was on sale in some shops, including Readings and WH Smith in Melbourne. But customers who ordered it from the online seller Booktopia were told it had been “withdrawn from sale” and had their payment refunded.

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Chairman of aged care royal commission, Richard Tracey, dies aged 71

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Former federal court judge dies in US after being diagnosed with cancer just seven weeks ago

The aged care royal commission chairman, Richard Tracey QC, has died suddenly, aged 71.

The former federal court judge died on Friday in the US, where he was being treated for cancer diagnosed only seven weeks earlier.

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Australian Christian Lobby backs sacking of employees with no ‘Christian sexual ethic’

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ACL director Martyn Iles says businesses should have greater powers to hire and fire, but denies Christians have a ‘special vendetta’ against LGBT people

The Australian Christian Lobby has backed calls for religious businesses such as aged care providers to gain more powers of hiring and firing employees who do not conform to religious teachings.

In a debate at the National Press Club on Wednesday the ACL director Martyn Iles backed calls from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference for greater powers to fire employees who don’t conform to a “Christian sexual ethic” but claimed Christians don’t have a “special vendetta” against the LGBT community.

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Michael Guider, who killed schoolgirl Samantha Knight, walks free from prison

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New South Wales government fails in bid to keep the notorious paedophile behind bars

The notorious paedophile Michael Guider, who killed schoolgirl Samantha Knight decades ago, has walked free from a Sydney prison.

Guider was released from Long Bay jail on Thursday after the supreme court rejected a New South Wales government bid to keep him behind bars for another year.

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Biloela Tamil family’s deportation blocked until at least Friday

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Federal court in Melbourne extends injunction preventing the removal of the family from Christmas Island to Sri Lanka

Two Tamil asylum seekers and their Australian-born daughters will remain on Christmas Island until at least Friday afternoon after the federal court extended the injunction preventing the Australian government from deporting them back to Sri Lanka.

Priya, Nadesalingam and their two Australian-born children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, were sent to Christmas Island over the weekend after the court granted an injunction until 4pm on Wednesday preventing the government from deporting Tharunicaa until the application had been heard.

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Biloela Tamil family’s deportation to Sri Lanka prevented by last-minute injunction

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Peter Dutton says family of four ‘not owed protection’ after they were removed from deportation flight in Darwin thanks to court injunction

A Tamil asylum-seeker family whose deportation was halted in mid-air on Thursday night do not deserve protection from Australia, Peter Dutton has said.

The family of four were put on a non-commercial flight from Melbourne bound for Sri Lanka about 11pm on Thursday.

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Australia entering ‘second convict age’ as imprisonment rates soar

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Incarceration rates have risen 130% since 1985, according to new research by Labor MP and economist Andrew Leigh

Indigenous Australians are now more likely to be in prison than African-Americans, according to new research by Labor parliamentarian and economist Andrew Leigh warning that Australia has entered “a second convict age”.

Leigh’s new working paper finds that in 2018, around 43,000 Australians were in prison, a rate of 221 for every 100,000 adults – which he says is a significant jump since incarceration rates began climbing in 1985.

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