Category Archives: Australian security and counter-terrorism

Australia news live: high court rules in favour of indefinite immigration detention; publisher of banned book to offer free download

Posted on by

High court delivers judgment in the case of ASF1. Follow the day’s news live

Penny Wong is speaking on RN Breakfast now. Right off the bat she was asked by Patricia Karvelas if the Australian government will support admitting Palestine as a full member of the UN at a vote later today.

Wong begins with a preamble about Australia’s support for a two-state solution, then says:

We will consider the final resolution that comes before the General Assembly. Obviously, countries are still negotiating texts.

I don’t want to speculate about our vote … I think an abstention generally means you can agree in part with the resolution but not with sufficient, not with all of it, or not with a sufficient extent of the resolution for you to vote for it, so it can send a message that whilst you don’t agree with it in full, you’re not going to stand in the way.

I understand that question … I understand questions from those who don’t want us to deal with it at this time. I think one of the things we are aware of, and thinking about, is the timing of the situation on the ground. We know Hamas is still holding hostages. We want to look at the wording of the resolution to make sure we are being responsible, that what we commit to we are obliged to and look to the UN Charter and the resolution would have to be consistent with the charter. And of course it was with our partners, but your listeners, what I would say to them is Australia does support a two-state solution.

You’ve spoken to me many times over the years, Patricia, and you know I always try and bring a more nuanced discussion about what is really happening rather than getting drawn into the end the hard edges of the debate. Unfortunately, in this country, we seem, we see too much of this discussion, which is looked at by those who basically say you’re either with us or against us. And everything is black and white and simple. Regrettably, that is not what is happening in the Middle East. And regrettably, that is not how we should be looking at this.

The board finds that both posts violated the Coordinating Harms and Promoting Crime rule that prohibits content “advocating, providing instructions for, or demonstrating explicit intent to illegally participate in a voting or census process.

Continue reading...

Greens senator applies for court case against One Nation leader to be re-opened – As it happened

Posted on by

Government’s promised ‘future gas strategy’ will argue the fossil fuel is important part of transition to net zero emissions. This blog is now closed

NSW’s arts minister, John Graham, says a Sydney council has sent a “terrible message” by voting to ban same-sex parenting books, importing a “US culture war into our country”.

In case you missed it: Cumberland city council voted to place a blanket ban on same-sex parenting books from local libraries. Labor councillor Mohamad Hussein voted in favour of the motion, which passed six to five.

That’s a good thing. I think it’s a chance for the council to reconsider.

It’s a terrible message to send, to have this councillor importing this US culture war into our country and playing it out on the shelves of the local library. I think the community expectations are clear – the local councillors should be coming around to pick up their bin, not telling them what to read.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Queensland poised to limit K’gari visits amid wave of dingo attacks; Electric Fields crash out of Eurovision semi

Posted on by

The number of tourists on K’gari could soon be capped on the busiest days of the year. Follow today’s news live

CFMEU welcomes funding of 15,000 fee-free construction Tafe places in budget

The CFMEU has welcomed a funding boost for apprenticeships and traineeships in the upcoming budget.

This investment will mean more apprentices and trainees will get the training they need to build critical housing and infrastructure that Australia desperately needs …

There’s an often-overlooked distinction between apprenticeships and traineeships but thankfully the government recognises the importance of both – that’s critical to addressing construction skills gaps.

If they don’t mobilise this government into real action I just don’t know what will. Half of all threatened species becoming extinct is an intolerable outcome.

Report after report has shown the terrible decline of biodiversity in NSW, and the Ken Henry review of biodiversity laws gave the government very clear recommendations on how to slow and reverse this trend, but the government still hasn’t responded after seven months.

Continue reading...

Australia bans alleged Russian leader of global ransomware group LockBit

Posted on by

Dmitry Khoroshev named as having a ‘senior role’ in group allegedly behind 18% of reported Australian ransomware attacks in 2022-23

An alleged leader of the international ransomware group LockBit has been hit with financial sanctions and banned from travelling to Australia.

The Australian government named Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, a Russian citizen, as having a “senior leadership role” in a criminal group that supplied a global network of hackers with the tools and infrastructure to carry out online attacks.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Michele Bullock says data ‘pretty bumpy’ but RBA vigilant about continued high inflation risk

Posted on by

Follow the day’s news live

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says the prime minister needs to “pick the phone up” and speak directly to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, after the Australian government accused a Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares close to an Australian helicopter in international waters.

The defence minister, Richard Marles, yesterday branded the incident as “unacceptable” and said the Australian pilot had to take evasive action to avoid the flares. You can read all the details below:

I think the prime minister needs to pick the phone up, frankly, and speak to the Chinese president … and express our deep concern, because at some stage, there’s going to be a miscalculation and an Australian defence force member is going to lose their life.

And that is a tragic circumstance that has to be avoided at all costs, but there will be a miscalculation by somebody who’s flying that jet or somebody who’s on the deck of a Chinese naval ship, something will happen.

Continue reading...

Threats to school of Perth student who was shot by police dismissed as ‘hacking’

Posted on by

Police have no concerns for safety, Rossmoyne senior high school principal says, after messages on an internal service threatening to ‘shoot up the school’ were investigated

Fresh threats to “shoot up the school” attended by the teenager who was shot dead by police in Perth on the weekend have been dismissed as a hacking incident, with the school insisting there was no threat to students.

The 16-year-old was fatally shot by police in a car park in Willetton on Saturday night after he stabbed a stranger in the back. The teenager, a white convert to Islam, was known to police and had been in a deredicalisation program for two years.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Bonza urged to pay April wages; data breach exposes family violence, sexual assault data – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

PM responds to reports regional women camping out, sleeping in cars

Anthony Albanese has commented on reports that carparks in regional areas are being opened for women to sleep in tents or their cars.

We have allocated funding through our Housing Australia Future Fund for emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence. I will be in discussions with the states and territories as well about what more can be done.

We know that the circumstances where a woman is escaping a violent situation [and] has to sleep in her car or surf on a couch of a friend and rotate around, we hear stories about that as well, is unacceptable in 2024. We need to do better. There’s no question about that.

We need to look at bail laws. More importantly, we actually need to look at how we can keep women, or victims and children in the home environment and force the perpetrator to leave. We have a program in NSW called the Staying Home: Leave Violence program. There are over 138 LGAs in this state at the moment, only 91 have access to that program, even though we know it is incredibly effective. We need programs like that funded immediately, not just across NSW but across the country.

I am optimistic about who we are as a country and our capacity to take responsibility for ourselves. The time of us to do this is now. We don’t have three months, which is what the government is suggesting, to wait and see what happens next. By then another 23 women will have lost their lives.

Continue reading...

Bonza fleet’s grounding extended – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Prime minister says trial ongoing into funding for women escaping violence

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to ABC RN about yesterday’s announcements after national cabinet.

Well, there is already a trial going ahead. We want to make sure that the processes are in place [so] that they will begin within the next financial year as a permanent program, not just offering financial support, but as well as offering support for referral services, risk assessments, safety planning, and other support …

This isn’t something that you solve with a meeting on one day. This is something that governments are determined to take action on. For some of us this is deeply personal, for others, it is incredibly important.

Continue reading...

Australia expelled two Indian intelligence operatives in 2020 as part of ‘nest of spies’, reports claim

Posted on by

Asio director general Mike Burgess had referred to expulsion of foreign operatives in 2021 speech but did not name country behind threat

Australia reportedly expelled two Indian intelligence officers in 2020 after Asio alleged a “nest of spies” had sought to cultivate politicians, monitor diaspora communities and obtain classified trade information and airport security protocols.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that two officers from the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s foreign intelligence service, had been expelled from Australia in 2020. The newspaper reported the incident was one of “a series of clashes between RAW and western domestic security services.”

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Tenth person charged over Wakeley church riot, say NSW police

Posted on by

It comes as a sixth teenager was charged with terrorism-related offences after raids across Sydney as investigations continue into church stabbing

A tenth person has been charged in relation to their alleged participation in the Wakeley church riot, according to New South Wales police.

The 27-year-old was arrested at a home in Granville in western Sydney on Saturday after several items alleged to be linked to the incident were seized by the strike force.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australian Muslim leaders call out ‘questionable law enforcement tactics’ that led to arrest of minors

Posted on by

Muslim organisations say they were not consulted before counter-terrorism raids that resulted in arrests relating to a church stabbing in Sydney

Representatives of the Australian Muslim community have called out what they called “questionable law enforcement tactics” after seven minors were arrested and six of them charged with counter-terrorism-related offences this week.

Three major bodies, the Australian National Imams Council, the Alliance of Australian Muslims and the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, have also demanded the government revise Australia’scounter-terrorism laws, saying they “target specific communities”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Taylor Swift makes Arias history; Tucker Carlson and Clive Palmer to headline ‘Australian freedom conferences’ – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog has now closed

As we reported, X has provided an update on its legal challenge against Australia’s eSafety commissioner, stating it had complied with a direction to remove content from the Wakeley church stabbing.

However, underneath the post from the platform’s global government affairs team (which we quoted in our previous post), the video is available to watch in a reply to the post, as of 7.45am AEST.

The eSafety Commissioner required X to remove posts containing a video of the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, filmed by an innocent bystander. [The bishop] has expressed his desire for the video to remain online.

X believes it has complied with the notice issued by eSafety, and with Australian law, by restricting all the posts at issue in Australia.

Continue reading...

Sussan Ley ‘really disappointed’ with Elon Musk – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Hundreds gather in Sydney for Anzac Day dawn service

AAP has the details on Sydney’s dawn service where hundreds of people – including veterans – gathered under a full moon and clear skies for a solemn service in the CBD.

You who have loved will remember the glow of their glad young years, as you stand today to salute them in silence, with pride and with tears.

The best thing about the ceremony this morning is to see the number of people that come early in the morning.

Continue reading...

Sydney counter-terror raids – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Inspired by similar protests in the United States, students from Sydney University established a protest on the quad in support of Palestine last night, stating they will remain until the uni cuts ties “with Israeli universities and weapons manufacturers”.

In the US, dozens of students have been arrested at pro-Palestine demonstrations at Yale University and New York University amid similar protests:

For six months now, we have watched bombs rain down on Gaza. These bombs hit their civilian targets because of the research carried out by universities like Sydney University... Students have a responsibility to stand up and refuse to be complicit in genocide.

Continue reading...

Senator’s X account removed – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Anglicare says government spending eight times more on private investors than building housing itself

The Anglicare Australia executive director, Kasy Chambers, says the government must step up and intervene, instead of leaving housing to the private sector:

We found that the government spends eight times as much propping up private investors as it does on building housing itself. This approach is wrong, and it’s supercharging rents and house prices.

Housing cannot be left to hobby landlords and private developers. Only our government can ensure that rentals are affordable by building homes itself, and by fixing Australia’s unfair tax system.

289 rentals (0.6%) were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage.

89 rentals (0.2%) were affordable for a person on the age pension.

31 rentals (0.1%) were affordable for a person on the disability support pension.

3 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person on jobseeker.

0 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person on youth allowance.

This is not hyperbole. It is Australia’s new normal.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Dfat issues Middle East travel advice; Nationals concerned after fire ants spotted near Murray Darling Basin

Posted on by

Reports of explosions in Iranian city of Isfahan prompt sell-off of stocks in Australia – and in other markets such as Japan. Follow the day’s news live

The NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, is speaking to the media after a 16-year-old was charged with a “terrorist act” for allegedly stabbing a bishop on Monday and is expected to appear at a bedside hearing today.

She said members of the joint counter-terrorism team interviewed the alleged offender at a medical facility last night, and he was subsequently charged with a commonwealth offence for terrorism and refused bail.

We expect he will be attending a bedside court hearing today to determine bail. This relates to the stabbing of the Bishop [Mar Mari Emmanuel, who] we allege on Monday night [was] stabbed up to six times.

We also allege that the boy had travelled for 90 minutes to attend that location from his home address.

We’ve got a crisis of male violence in Australia. We know that it’s a scourge in our society, we know it must end and I think it’s really clear women can’t be expected to solve violence against women although it is time for men to step up.

I don’t think debating definitions is the way to go … We need to act, we need to educate ourselves, men need to step up, we need to talk to our sons, to our colleagues, to our friends. We need to work together to a solution. And I think going down some kind of almost a wrong path to say let’s redefine – it’s not about definitions. This is about action. We need to shift the way in which we think about this …

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Marles says Labor ‘utterly committed’ to Brereton response but can’t say when work will be completed

Posted on by

Follow today’s news live

Unemployment ‘might take up a little bit’ when new numbers released later this week

Q: Given the economic conditions we’re seeing, what should households with mortgages expect?

[Inflation] won’t necessarily continue to come off in a perfectly straight line, but [it] is a fraction of what it was a couple of years ago when we came to office. That’s a good thing.

So we’ve got a whole bunch of things going for us in Australia, but enough to concern us as well about the global conditions about the way that people are still under considerable cost of living pressure.

The way that I would describe it to your listeners is we’ve got inflation lingering in parts of the world, we’ve got growth slowing in China and elsewhere, we’ve got tensions rising in the Middle East and the war in Europe. We’ve got supply chains which are straining and we’ve got a global economy which is fragmenting and transforming and so all of these factors are really important to us as we finalise the government’s third budget.

These are going to be these global conditions are going to be a really big influence on our budget, so the trip to DC which will be a pretty quick and make the most of it but it’s a good opportunity to take the temperature of the global economy.

Continue reading...

Australia weather live updates: more heavy rain forecast for NSW and Qld as SES issues flood warnings; Sydney downpours cause train delays and airport flight cancellations

Posted on by

Dozens of flights cancelled at Sydney airport and drivers told to avoid non-essential travel as inland low and coastal trough combine

Helen Reid from the Bureau of Meteorology has just provided us with an update on the Sydney rain and said the city could very well receive a month’s worth of rain in one day.

She pointed to the Observatory Hill gauge and said on average in April, there is around 126.5mm of rainfall during the month. Since 9am yesterday morning, there has been 106mm of rain.

We are expecting rainfall over Sydney to increase during today … I would suggest that if we got more than the April average, that wouldn’t be too beyond too far beyond this stretch of imagination.

Continue reading...

Australia politics live: Toyota boss says fuel efficiency standard ‘not a car tax’ as Labor defends secrecy around bill

Posted on by

Follow the day’s news live

Renewed push to scrap activity level requirements for childcare subsidies

There was a lot of disappointment last budget when the government did not scrap the activity test as a way of making early child education more accessible and universal.

Zoe Daniel MP, Member for Goldstein

Georgie Dent, the CEO of the Parenthood

Sam Page, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia

Kate Carnell, the former Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and former ACT chief minister

Natalie Walker, the deputy chair of Goodstart Early Learning

Sue Morphett, a businesswoman and the former president of Chief Executive Women

Continue reading...

Australian intelligence chiefs want law to stop former spies taking skills overseas

Posted on by

Asio bosses fear ‘growing threat’ as foreign governments are allowed to gain knowledge of tradecraft

Australia’s intelligence chiefs have asked the government for new laws to stop former spies marketing their skills abroad, fearing current provisions are allowing foreign adversaries to gain invaluable knowledge of Australian tradecraft.

Asio is seeking specific consolidated legislation requiring that former spies gain explicit permission before they offer themselves as trainers, in light of what it says is the serious and growing threat of espionage and foreign interference.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...