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What we learned, Thursday 28 August
Another busy final sitting day of the week. We are wrapping up the live blog here. This is what made the news:
We’ll be back tomorrow with a regular live news blog. Take care until then.
Updated at 03.42 EDT
ABC welcomes decision not to convict ATO whistleblower
The ABC has welcomed the decision not to convict ATO whistleblower, Richard Boyle and again called for strengthened whistleblower protections.
Boyle gave information to investigative journalist Adele Ferguson in 2018 on tactics used on taxpayers who owed money that resulted in a joint Nine and Four Corners investigation in 2018.
Richard Boyle (left) with Whistleblowers Justice Fund founder Rex Patrick outside the South Australian district court on Thursday. Photograph: Matt Turner/AAP
ABC director of news Justin Stevens said:
We acknowledge the seriousness of these offences. However, Boyle had principled intentions, and his actions were in the public’s interest. His allegations were vindicated. He received no personal gain and has paid a high personal price for his whistleblowing.
If it wasn’t for whistleblowers such as Richard Boyle coming forward to journalists, there are many important issues affecting people’s wellbeing and livelihoods that the public would never know about.
Updated at 03.26 EDT
Human rights organisations condemn noncitizen deportation bill
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and the Human Rights Law Centre are among the organisations condemning legislation introduced into parliament this week that removes procedural fairness for noncitizens the government is seeking to move to third countries.
In legislation introduced in the parliament on Tuesday, the home affairs minister said the changes will address the cohort who have remained in Australia following the NZYQ high court decision.
He said:
Procedural fairness is a fundamental principle in many areas of decision-making. However, these provisions can and are being used by noncitizens to delay and frustrate their removal, at cost to the commonwealth in circumstances where it is neither necessary nor appropriate for it to continue to apply.
The amendments in this bill are largely directed at noncitizens who have come to the end of any visa processes, and who are on a removal pathway.
These provisions are primarily directed to noncitizens who have exhausted all legitimate avenues to remain in Australia – and for whom removal is the only remaining outcome under Australian law.
He said the purpose of the law should be clear to give effect to removal as swiftly and effectively as possible.
The human rights organisations say the bill would “strip migrants and refugees of their legal rights” when sending them to third countries such as Nauru, and was “yet another attempt at rushed law-making”.
Jana Favero, deputy CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said:
The decisions are serious and lifelong. We are talking about people being permanently deported to places like Nauru. Decisions like this must not be made without fundamental legal safeguards. This legislation is clearly designed to manipulate the law so that the government is not accountable to the courts.
Josephine Langbien, associate legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said:
This legislation would save the government from having to consider basic questions like whether someone can access the medical care they need in Nauru, or whether they would be permanently separated from their families. By eliminating safeguards that are designed to ensure fairness and accuracy, the government is showing that it does not care if it gets these life-changing decisions wrong.
Updated at 03.16 EDT
Family of girl killed in Stonehaven bus crash release statement
The family of Milla Killeen, the 12-year-old girl killed in the bus crash at Stonehaven in Victoria yesterday, have released a statement and a photo to the media.
Milla Killeen, the 12-year-old girl who tragically lost her life in the bus crash at Stonehaven. Photograph: Supplied
The family said:
Our whole family are struggling to come to terms with the loss of our beloved Milla.
We were made aware of the crash quite quickly, but it wasn’t for several hours that our worst fears were realised – Milla was the one that was sadly taken.
She was a beautiful soul with the whole world in front of her.
Milla had the patience of a saint.
She was so kind and protective of those she loved, especially her younger brother.
Milla was thriving at school where she loved learning new languages.
It brought us great joy when she would come home and try to teach her nan bits of Indonesian or Japanese that she’d learned throughout the day.
Milla was very artistic, enjoyed drawing and designing lots of different things and she loved her sport.
She used to play junior footy but lately had been focusing on basketball where she reached representative level and was about to play in a final on Friday night.
Milla was a passionate supporter of the Geelong Football Club, and we will always remember her sitting in the stands with her mum and pa, cheering for the Cats.
We don’t know why this has happened.
It’s difficult to describe all the emotions we feel right now but we are supporting one another and now ask that our family’s privacy is respected.
Updated at 02.58 EDT
Age assurance company to brief on technology trial next month
We’re all awaiting the release of the final report of the age assurance technology trial that will inform what technology the social media sites will use to keep under 16s off their services from December.
The report has been with the federal government since the start of the month, but there haven’t been any indications on when it’ll be released.
There is a sign it may be imminent, however, with the head of the trial, Tony Allen, posting on LinkedIn that there will be a series of briefings on the outcome of the trial in Australia and New Zealand towards the end of September.
The office of the communications minister, Anika Wells, was approached for comment.
The trial has kept quiet about its findings, mostly, since the report was finalised, amid concerns about leaks to media.
Taylor defends focus on Marles meeting
The shadow defence minister, Angus Taylor, has defended the Coalition focusing on whether the defence minister, Richard Marles, did meet with his US counterpart or not, arguing it was important whether Aukus and the US alliance are strong.
He told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing that there had been conflicting statements, and there was a material issue:
I think the material issue here is what progress are we making ensuring Aukus, ensuring the US alliance at a time which is the most dangerous since the second world war, authoritarian regimes are flexing their muscles and we need a strong alliance and we need a strong Aukus. We want to see progress on this and that is why we are asking the questions and questions need to be continued to be asked of the defence minister and of the prime minister.
He said the government should be offering to seriously fund the defence force.
Updated at 02.29 EDT
Marles’s US meeting was ‘productive’, assistant minister says
Matt Thistlethwaite, the assistant minister for foreign affairs, has said the meeting between the defence minister, Richard Marles, and his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, was “productive” and dismissed attention on whether it was a “happenstance” or a meeting from the Coalition.
Thistlethwaite told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing Marles told him the meeting was productive, and the government believes the alliance is going well and strong.
Asked why the Pentagon initially described it as happenstance, the assistant minister said that was a question for the Pentagon.
I don’t know about that statement put out, [but] we can confirm the meeting occurred and Richard also met with Marco Rubio and the vice president JD Vance. Critical minerals, treaty relationship, issues internationally were discussed.
He said a meeting had been requested with US president Donald Trump and that “is all we can do”.
He questioned the “priorities” of the opposition in raising it during question time, rather than a specific question on Aukus, when the government has been focused on the cost of living for Australians in parliament this week.
Updated at 02.22 EDT
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Federal government condemns planned anti-immigration rallies
The Albanese government has condemned anti-immigration rallies scheduled for this weekend, saying the “brand of fight-right activism grounded in racism and ethnocentrism” has no place in modern Australia.
A series of so-called March for Australia rallies are planned in cities across the country on Sunday to protest against “mass migration”.
In a statement on Thursday, the minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, said there was “no place in our country for people who seek to divide and undermine our social cohesion”.
We stand with modern Australia against these rallies – nothing could be less Australian.
The multicultural affairs minister, Anne Aly, said “multiculturalism was an integral and valued part of our identity”.
We stand with all Australians, no matter where they were born, against those who seek to divide us and who seek to intimidate migrant communities. We will not be intimidated.
This brand of far-right activism grounded in racism and ethnocentrism has no place in modern Australia.
The shadow multicultural affairs minister, Paul Scarr, earlier this week condemned a pamphlet promoting the rallies that referenced Indian migrants.
Scarr said at the time:
So I am compelled to rise in this place at the earliest opportunity to call it out and to condemn it and say that the language and references to Australians of Indian heritage is unacceptable. It is outrageous … it seeks to divide Australians at a time when we need to unite.
Updated at 02.15 EDT
Whether or not he thinks Folbigg innocent is ‘irrelevant’ to payout calculation, NSW AG says
The innocence of Kathleen Folbigg, jailed for two decades after the deaths of her four children, was “irrelevant” to the calculation of a $2m payout, the NSW attorney general says.
Folbigg was jailed in 2003 before being released and having her convictions quashed in 2023, when fresh scientific evidence cast reasonable doubt over her guilt.
Michael Daley did not meet with her before announcing the payment offer on 7 August, telling a budget estimates hearing on Thursday that “it would not have assisted” him in determining the amount offered.
The best way to deal with ex gratia payments is to deal with the objective facts. When you meet with people seeking ex gratia payments, it raises expectations.
Daley said he did not plan to meet with her now that “the matter has concluded”.
I can’t see any point in doing that. I don’t want to hold any hope out to her that she can come in and ask for that figure to be varied because I think the premier has indicated quite clearly, on a number of occasions, that it won’t be.
Labor has been under pressure to explain how it arrived at the $2m figure, after experts suggested it should be five to 10 times higher.
Lindy Chamberlain, jailed for four years before authorities agreed a dingo had likely taken her baby from an Uluru campsite, was awarded $1.7m, including legal costs, in 1992. That sum would be worth $4 million today.
But Folbigg’s case stood alone, Daley suggested.
Medical evidence, which led to her release and acquittal in 2023, did not exist at the time of her trial.
“That was a huge factor,” the attorney general said.
“What set this matter apart was there was no proven malfeasance on the part of the state.”
He said he followed a process to determine the amount offered.
Whether he considered Folbigg innocent or guilty was “completely irrelevant” to his decision.
– AAP
Updated at 02.12 EDT
Krishani Dhanji
That’s all from me on the blog this week, thanks for joining me on what ended up being a very lively afternoon in Parliament House.
I’ll leave you with the very capable Josh Taylor for the rest of the afternoon’s news.