Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Category Archives: Australian security and counter-terrorism
Opposition will try to introduce amendments but if that fails it will pass the bill. All the day’s events, live
tl;dr - shut the hell up.
I'm also told @ScottMorrisonMP told backbenchers who have been out and about on issues, including, lately, superannuation, to calm their farms and work through party processes. Words to that effect @AmyRemeikis#auspol
You know what it absolutely is not, and was never, going to be? A third chamber.
I'm told @SenatorMcGrath raised constitutional recognition in today's party room meeting. He asked what the position was. @ScottMorrisonMP and @KenWyattMP told him the voice could be many things & constitutional change wouldn't be radical @AmyRemeikis#auspol
Labor and Centre Alliance fear government will proceed with two key bills without recommended safeguards
The Morrison government is being accused of ignoring bipartisan recommendations and breaching commitments to reform the spy agency’s powers as it prepares a fresh push on national security when parliament resumes on Monday.
Labor and Centre Alliance fear the government is set to ignore advice to improve scrutiny of proposed new powers for the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, to exclude citizens from Australia and to phase out Asio’s detention powers.
Federal police say ministers may be ‘notified’ before raids, but outgoing commissioner Andrew Colvin says they are not ‘consulted’
The Australian Federal Police has added more confusion to the question of whether the AFP consults ministers before conducting raids, after its outgoing commissioner, Andrew Colvin, denied that it did so.
On the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday, Colvin was questioned about the recent raids on the ABC and on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst over leaked documents. Colvin was asked whether any government minister was consulted about the raids in advance.
The cost of keeping China out of the region is too great, we must build forces that could counter its operations instead
Let’s be honest: Australians have never had much time for our South Pacific neighbours.
The island nations that lie to our north and north-east, stretching from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to Vanuatu, Fiji and beyond, may be close to us geographically, but we have not found them especially interesting, important or profitable.
Acting AFP commissioner denies the government directed the investigations, which have led to raids on the ABC and News Corp this week
The Australian federal police have all but confirmed that ABC and News Corp journalists could be charged for publishing protected information after two dramatic days of raids which prompted outrage and drew international attention to Australia’s draconian secrecy laws.
The acting AFP commissioner, Neil Gaughan, held a press conference on Thursday to contain political fallout, denying suggestions the police had waited until after the federal election to execute warrants and claiming no contact had been made with the executive since they informed home affairs minister Peter Dutton’s office when the investigations started.
Former prosecutor says US was confident when charges were brought that the two men were part of a Hutu rebel group
The attorney who brought charges against two Rwandan men recently resettled in Australia says the United States was “certain” they were members of a Hutu rebel group that was later designated a terror group by the US government.
‘There never seems to be any consistent rule or fairness,’ specialist migration lawyer
A 28-year veteran of migration law whose Rwandan clients have all been denied Australia’s protection says the resettlement of two members of a violent Hutu rebel group shows a “frustrating” double standard.
Australia’s deal with the US to take in two former members of the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda, once designated a terrorist group by the US, has prompted consternation among some experts and lawyers. The pair were languishing in US detention after the collapse of a case against them for the slaughter of tourists in Uganda in 1999.
Former WA premier Colin Barnett cites businessman’s ‘appalling’ record while Shorten rebuffs the Greens on climate policy. Follow the day’s news live
Mikey Slezak, of the ABC (oh how we miss him), has a story overnight regarding the last minute sign off by the Morrison government on a controversial uranium mine one day before calling the federal election.
Then there was a sneaky “public announcement” by the environment department when it uploaded the approval document the day before Anzac Day.
I want to find out what on earth has happened. The minister made no comment, no announcement beforehand. It looks like it might have been rushed. We don’t know....The reason I can’t tell you I’m on this side or the other side, we need to know what on earth she has done and what her reasons for it and the minister has gone missing.
Tony Burke was also asked about Labor’s very specific, siloed commission of inquiry that only looks a the one water buyback conducted under Barnaby Joyce as minister from Eastern Australia Agriculture.
What we have announced is there is a specific transaction from Barnaby Joyce that is different to anything that Simon Birmingham, David Littleproud, Bob Baldwin, different to anything that any other minister has engaged with. And anything else … can be dealt with properly by the Australian national National Audit Office. This one, there was no tender. There [are] arguments about conflict of interest. And it has links all the way back to the Cayman Islands, where there is complete secrecy about who is involved. Everything else you don’t need coercive powers.
In terms of making sure that we’ve got probity, we will establish a national integrity commission and there will be an ongoing watchdog on probity. In terms of the purchases by Penny that you referred to, they went fully through the National Audit Office, a report in 2011 [and were] given a complete bill of health. If I was arguing that things should apply to every other member of the government who has been involved, then the government’s characterisation would be fair. The point is no other purchase is like this.
Karen Nettleton finally gets the chance to embrace the orphaned children of Khaled Sharrouf
After more than five years of sleepless nights, Australian grandmother Karen Nettleton has finally had a chance to embrace her orphaned grandchildren – the children of Australia’s most notorious Isis terrorist, Khaled Sharrouf.
Senior home affairs official says no major changes planned to ‘scientifically calibrated’ focus on terrorism after attack
Australian security agencies had no information to suggest the man accused of the Christchurch mosque massacre should be placed on a watchlist or prevented from leaving the country, a Senate committee has heard.
However, there were no major changes being made to Australia’s “scientifically calibrated” focus on different types of terrorism, the home affairs department secretary, Michael Pezzullo, said.
Penny Wong says it’s ‘deeply concerning’ a company with ‘such a poor track record’ was awarded a lucrative sum through closed tender
Penny Wong has indicated Labor will target the Paladin offshore detention security contract in Senate estimates this week, accusing the government of failing to explain why the company was awarded $420m in contracts through closed tender.
Key crossbencher Kerryn Phelps indicates she would consider Labor’s changes to the medevac legislation. All the day’s events, live
The PMO has released the transcript of Scott Morrison’s doorstop this morning:
JOURNALIST: Prime minister, if you lose the medevac bill today, why should you not drive to Government House and call an election?
You may remember from Luke’s report yesterday, that David de Garis declined to answer how he found out about the AWU raid. Looks like shiz is about to get reeeal interesting in the federal court.
Justice Bromberg has ruled Michaelia Cash's former media adviser David De Garis will have to give evidence about who tipped him off that federal police were set to raid the AWU's offices. #auspol