The stateless Rohingya man who won a high court ruling that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful was released on “strict conditions”, Penny Wong said.
Four-day weeks and shorter days possible for school students under new Queensland policy
Schools looking to adopt flexible hours have been given new guidelines in Queensland, governing everything from starting and finishing times to four-day weeks, AAP has reported.
Four-day weeks and shorter days will be possible for Queensland students next year under a new flexible school schedule policy.
Public school principals around the state this week received a framework to change their operating hours from 2024 under the updated policy.
The education minister, Grace Grace, said it did not mean automatic approval for schools to adopt four-day weeks:
It’s an upgrade to the policy. It is definitely not a green light for a four-day week.
In fact, schools are expected to operate over the five days per week.
Under the new policy, reasons for schools making changes include teacher or resources availability, school community need or student and staff wellbeing and engagement.
Two men arrestedafter alleged spate of shootings onNSW mid-north coast
NSW police have released a bit more information in relation to the two men in custody after an alleged spate of shootings on the state’s mid-north coast.
In a statement, police said:
A large-scale police operation was established by the Mid North Coast Police District – assisted by officers from Manning-Great Lakes Police District, and several NSW Police specialist units, including PolAir, the Tactical Operations Unit, the Police Dog Unit, Traffic and Highway Patrol, and other Northern Region resources – to locate those involved.
About 3.15pm, two men – aged 26 and 32 – were arrested behind Geoffrey Debenham Street, Kempsey, and have been taken to Kempsey Police Station.
As inquiries continue, police urge anyone with information or dashcam footage to contact police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Greens fear a Labor-Liberal deal to avoid ‘genuine reform’ on donations
‘If it seeks to lock in bipartisan power, and lock the Greens and the independents out, then it won’t be genuine reform’: Greens senator Larissa Waters. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
The Greens say they are concerned the Labor government will do a deal with the opposition to avoid implementing any “genuine reform” for federal elections.
The government has issued its response to an interim report from the joint standing committee on electoral matters, which offered recommendations including the introduction of real-time donation disclosures, lowering the disclosure threshold to $1,000 and bringing in political donation caps for federal elections.
The government said electoral reform should be “undertaken in a consultative and bipartisan manner”, suggesting it was important the major parties reach agreement on the new standards.
But the response also said the government looked forward to working with colleagues “across the parliament”, indicating it would listen to crossbenchers too.
However, the Greens senator Larissa Waters said the reference to reform needing bipartisanship was “concerning” for any hope of “genuine change”.
“Now that shouts Labor-Liberal deal to me and it’s not surprising one of the few things they can agree on is rigging the system to secure their flailing political support. If it seeks to lock in bipartisan power, and lock the Greens and the independents out, then it won’t be genuine reform. There will be a rort.”
The committee’s final report will be delivered before the end of the year.
Human RightsCommission welcomes indefinite detention ruling
Rosalind Croucher calls the high court ruling on indefinite detention a ‘historic decision in terms of human rights and social justice in this country’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
The Australian Human Rights Commission has welcomed yesterday’s high court ruling which determined that Australia’s system of indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.
The Australian Human Rights Commission president, Emeritus Prof Rosalind Croucher, said:
For decades, Australia’s system of mandatory and indefinite immigration detention has imposed an enormous burden on thousands of vulnerable people and their families.
It has separated families and friends, it has caused significant physical and mental health problems, it has deprived people of hope, and it has taken away from them one of the most fundamental of human rights: the right to liberty.
Along with many community and civil society organisations, the Australian Human Rights Commission has long campaigned to overturn the Al-Kateb ruling and the terrible consequences that decision had for so many people and families.
This is a truly historic decision in terms of human rights and social justice in this country, and I thank all the people and organisations who have contributed in their own ways to bringing this about.
Optus outage: 'network event triggered a cascading failure', telco says
Optus also included some information on the outage, saying in the statement:
In common with major global telecommunication networks, the Optus network is designed with multiple layers of fall back and redundancy. At the heart of this is a modern intelligent router network developed with the world’s leading vendors.
Despite this, a network event yesterday triggered a cascading failure which resulted in the shutdown of services to our customers.
Our engineers are investigating thoroughly and we will learn from this outage and continue to improve. We welcome, and intend to cooperate fully with, the Government investigations.
Optus to offer customers some free data as compensation for outage
Optus has announced “eligible” customers will be able to apply for some free data, as compensation for the outage yesterday.
In a statement, the Optus CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, said:
We’re deeply sorry for yesterday’s outage. We know how important connectivity is to all our customers, and that we let you down.
We truly appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding as we worked to restore our operations yesterday.
We know that there is nothing we can do to make up for yesterday and what customers want most is for our network to work all the time – which is our number one priority – but we also want to acknowledge their patience and loyalty by giving them additional data to help during the holidays, when so many people consume more data with friends and family.
Optus customers can go to the telco’s website from Monday to add the free data. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images
From Monday 13 November eligible postpaid customers, both small businesses and consumers, will be able to access 200GB of extra data, and customers have until the end of the year to activate. Eligible prepaid customers will be able to access unlimited data on weekends until the end of the year.
From Monday, customers can go to optus.com.au for more details on how to add the offer to their plans.
PM busts a move at Pacific Islands Forum gift-giving ceremony
Daniel Hurst
Anthony Albanese has done a little dance during a gift-presentation ceremony on the island of Aitutaki in the Cook Islands.
Members of the Pacific Islands Forum travelled from the island of Rarotonga to Aitutaki this afternoon for an overnight leaders’ retreat.
More than 100 members of the Aitutaki community, including children lining the streets, came to Orongo Park to welcome representatives from around the Pacific.
One by one, each leader was called to the front to receive two gifts, including a large quilt.
Maybe it was the fresh air, maybe it was the energetic drumbeat or maybe it was the person presenting him with the gift who induced him to dance. But we can report that Albanese was by no means the first leader to do a little jig. They did seem to become a more frequent phenomenon in the second half of the leader roll call.
Hot-shoe diplomacy: Albanese busts a move at Pacific Islands Forum gift-giving ceremony - video
A couple of Australians who happened to be holidaying in Aitutaki stopped Albanese for a selfie after the event.
Albanese and other Pacific leaders are due to hold private talks on a boat on a lagoon tomorrow and are expected to discuss a range of topics including the climate crisis, nuclear issues and managing rivalry between major powers including the US and China.
Albanese said he had received an “extremely positive reception” at the events in the Cook Islands, given “there is a recognition” that since the change of government Australia was taking climate change seriously, “not only domestically but also helping in the Pacific”.
There is a large thunderstorm moving over parts of NSW including St Albans, Wisemans Ferry and Maroota with damaging winds, large hail and heavy rainfall possible. Residents can check warnings on the Bureau of Meteorology site:
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is coming to Australia next year. Photograph: Manny Carabel/Getty Images
In case you missed the announcement earlier today, Jerry Seinfeld is coming to Australia next year.
The 69-year-old comedian, who on his 1998 tour called Melbourne “the anus of the world”, is heading to Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and the anus of the world in June. (He did later clarify that it was a geography joke and that he “love[d] Melbourne”.)
He will also head to Auckland and Christchurch.
Seinfeld last toured Australia in 2017, when tickets sold out in minutes and many were later listed for thousands of dollars online.
Presales start on 16 November, followed by general sales from 12pm local time on 17 November.
‘A fundamental human right’:lawyers in indefinite detention case issue statement
A stateless Rohingya man, known as NZYQ, has been released after the high court found indefinite detention was unlawful. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
NZYQ, the stateless Rohingya man who overturned the legality of indefinite immigration detention in the high court, was represented by solicitors at Allens and a team of barristers led by Craig Lenehan.
Allens has released this statement on the decision:
The High Court held yesterday that refugees who do not have visas, but who have no prospect of removal to another country in the reasonably foreseeable future, may not be held in detention indefinitely.
It is a fundamental human right, acknowledged by Magna Carta and confirmed by the separation of powers in our constitution, that people should not be imprisoned unless they have been found by a court to have committed a crime. The High Court has confirmed that, although there are some limited exceptions to this principle, those exceptions do not include the indefinite detention of refugees who do not have visas and who cannot be removed to another country. Although the High Court has not yet delivered reasons for its decision, it is expected that those reasons will apply its earlier judgment in Lim, rather than its conflicting judgment in Al Kateb.
Allens acted pro bono for the plaintiff in this case and is very pleased to have played a role, together with a team of leading barristers, in enabling the High Court to confirm the importance of this crucial human right.
