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19 votes
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Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the US, allowing him to go free
67 votes -
Today is the UK courts decision day on Julian Assange's extradition to the US
30 votes -
Damien Guerot, who fought off Bondi Junction attacker with bollard, to be granted permanent Australia residency, lawyer says
13 votes -
Six people killed in stabbing attack at Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction, offender shot dead by police officer
26 votes -
Wrongfully jailed for twenty years, Australia’s ‘most hated woman’ likely to receive record compensation
18 votes -
Australians reject indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum
42 votes -
Former US President Donald Trump allegedly discussed US nuclear subs with Australian billionaire businessman Anthony Pratt after leaving White House: Sources
43 votes -
Victorian Aboriginal truth-telling inquiry calls for major overhaul of justice systems
12 votes -
The 'Voice to Parliament' referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps have been published by the Australian Electoral Commission
ABC news article: Voice to Parliament referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps published by AEC On the Australian Electoral Commission's website: The case for voting Yes The case for voting No...
ABC news article: Voice to Parliament referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps published by AEC
On the Australian Electoral Commission's website:
The Sydney Morning Herald / The Age newspapers have provided annotated versions of each pamphlet:
As has been observed in those annotation pages, there is no legal requirement for either of these pamphlets to be truthful or factual, and there is no obligation for the AEC to fact-check them (in fact, the AEC is legally restrained from commenting on those pamphlets in any way - its role is restricted to disseminating those pamphlets, because it must stay neutral).
12 votes -
Australia's Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme has released its report. It describes the Scheme as "an illconceived, embryonic idea and rushed to Cabinet".
Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Tabled_Documents/2743 Some summary quotes: From the Preface: It is remarkable how little interest there...
Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Tabled_Documents/2743
Some summary quotes:
From the Preface:
It is remarkable how little interest there seems to have been in ensuring the Scheme’s legality, how rushed its implementation was, how little thought was given to how it would affect welfare recipients and the lengths to which public servants were prepared to go to oblige ministers on a quest for savings. Truly dismaying was the revelation of dishonesty and collusion to prevent the Scheme’s lack of legal foundation coming to light. Equally disheartening was the ineffectiveness of what one might consider institutional checks and balances – the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office, the Office of Legal Services Coordination, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal – in presenting any hindrance to the Scheme’s continuance.
From the Conclusion:
The report paints a picture of how the Robodebt Scheme (the Scheme) was put together on an illconceived, embryonic idea and rushed to Cabinet. If ever there were a case of giving an unproportion’d thought his act, this was it.
The application of [public interest] immunity has also limited the Commission’s ability to reveal the entirety of the documentation concerning how the original proposal which became Robodebt, was passed and what was put to Cabinet thereafter. The salient points have been able to be made, but large parts of the relevant ministerial briefs, materials put before Cabinet and Cabinet minutes themselves have not been able to be revealed.
One of the questions in the Terms of Reference is when the Australian Government knew or ought to have known that debts were not, or may not have been, validly raised. [...] Some DHS senior executives always had that knowledge; some DSS senior executives must have suspected it, at least by 2016. As to members of the Government, one Minister, Mr Morrison, took the proposal to Cabinet, knowing that it involved income averaging and that his own Department had indicated that it would require legislative change, but on the basis of the contrary indication in the NPP checklist, proceeded without enquiring as to how the change had come about.
And... this ticking time-bomb from the covering letter:
I have provided to you an additional chapter of the report which has not been included in the bound report and is sealed. It recommends the referral of individuals for civil action or criminal prosecution. I recommend that this additional chapter remain sealed and not be tabled with the rest of the report so as not to prejudice the conduct of any future civil action or criminal prosecution.
Some news articles:
20 votes -
Australian High Court throws out Russia's bid to stop Australian government taking control of embassy site
17 votes -
Australian Commonwealth government lodges High Court challenge to landmark native title compensation claim over Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory
6 votes -
Australian Senate passes legislation for Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, triggering a public vote within six months
25 votes -
Back to paradise: K’gari name formally reclaimed for famed Fraser Island
6 votes -
Alternative facts - How the media failed Julian Assange
10 votes -
UK government orders Julian Assange’s extradition; appeal planned
9 votes -
Australia election: Conservative government voted out after nearly a decade
19 votes -
Julian Assange extradition appeal: Day 2
5 votes -
Australia to acquire nuclear submarines through new security alliance
6 votes -
High Court of Australia rules that media outlets are publishers of third-party Facebook comments
12 votes -
An0m: Hundreds arrested in massive global crime sting using messaging app
19 votes -
Declassification of secret document reveals US strategy in the Indo-Pacific
7 votes -
Amazon's reported surveillance of workers could break Australian law, union says
7 votes -
SAS soldiers made to shoot prisoners to get their first kill, thirty-nine Afghans 'murdered', inquiry finds
12 votes -
Anti-Rupert Murdoch petition wins record support in Australia
9 votes -
Boris Johnson's new Brexit trade advisor is former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott
10 votes -
WA's Hutt River Province, Australia's oldest micronation, set to rejoin the Commonwealth
6 votes -
Australian Associated Press sells the AAP Newswire
6 votes -
Counter-espionage agency ASIO is conducting a sweeping investigation into allegations Chinese government agents have infiltrated the office of a NSW Labor politician to influence Australian politics
7 votes -
Latest $84 million cuts rip the heart out of the ABC, and Australia's democracy
11 votes -
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australian organisations, including governments and businesses, are currently being targeted by a sophisticated foreign "state-based" hacker
6 votes -
Australian Senators unite to block Pauline Hanson's 'all lives matter' motion
8 votes -
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation briefing warns that the far-right is exploiting coronavirus to recruit new members
4 votes -
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologises for 'any hurt or harm' caused by robodebt scheme
7 votes -
The New South Wales Police Minister has labelled anyone who attends a protest during the coronavirus pandemic as "certifiably insane"
10 votes -
Bizarre scenes in tiny Western Australia town as 'sovereign nation' attempts to overthrow government
8 votes -
"Robodebt" class action to continue, despite the Australian government waiving outstanding debts and promising to repay anybody who paid an unsound debt
Yesterday, the Australian government announced it will pay back $721m as it scraps Robodebt for Centrelink welfare recipients. But the class action lodged against the robodebt scheme will...
Yesterday, the Australian government announced it will pay back $721m as it scraps Robodebt for Centrelink welfare recipients.
But the class action lodged against the robodebt scheme will continue, because "the Government still needs to answer to claims of compensation and claims of damages and inconvenience and distress that this system has caused".
7 votes -
Australia's High Court decides 'Palace letters' written during the Whitlam dismissal can be accessed by historian Jenny Hocking
6 votes -
News Corp has announced a massive shakeup of its publishing businesses, moving almost all its community and regional newspaper titles to a digital-only format
8 votes -
Victoria did not consult the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade before signing a controversial infrastructure deal with the Chinese government last year
6 votes -
Australian Federal Police will not lay charges against Annika Smethurst over publishing of classified intelligence documents
6 votes -
Hundreds of thousands of Australians affected by the government’s robodebt scheme will receive notices from Centrelink about an upcoming class action under orders from the federal court
5 votes -
Peter Dutton opens door to new Australian surveillance of journalists via foreign orders
6 votes -
Australian, US vessels in South China Sea as China flexes muscles
5 votes -
The warrant used by Australian Federal Police officers to search the home of journalist Annika Smethurst last year was thrown out by the High Court today
8 votes -
An Australian company which holds the rights to reproduce the Aboriginal design on flags and banners is a step closer to suing the seller of a reworked flag for alleged copyright infringement
7 votes -
Winston Peters invokes Christchurch massacre as NZ's deportations row with Australia escalates
5 votes -
National news agency, Australian Associated Press, will be shut down at the end of June after its owners decided it was no longer sustainable
12 votes -
BP worker sacked over Hitler parody video gets his job back
6 votes