Australia news LIVE: Senate accepts lock-up laws after child sex ringleader charged; Attorney-general to probe undercover police safety
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Key posts
- Senate speeds through lock-up laws after child sex ringleader charged
- Extremist West Bank settlers will be barred from US, Blinken announces
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Senate speeds through lock-up laws after child sex ringleader charged
The Senate has waved through tough new laws after a man who ran a child sex ring in Victoria has become the third former immigration detainee to face court on fresh charges.
Emran Dad, 33 – who in 2012 pleaded guilty to child sex and procurement offences for paying teenage girls in state care for sex, and to have sex with other men – was arrested on Tuesday in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong.
He was charged with three counts of making contact with a child, using email, TikTok, Instagram and live-streaming, all without reporting the use to the police.
Following his arrest, the Coalition moved a motion for the Senate to immediately vote on Labor’s new preventative detention laws in the upper house as politicians feuded over the consequences of the landmark High Court decision overturning the legality of indefinite immigration detention.
The new laws will allow the government to refer criminals freed from immigration detention to judges to decide if they still pose a risk to the community and should be locked up again.
Find out more about the proposal here.
Attorney-General asked to investigate undercover police safety
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has been asked to investigate the treatment of undercover police operatives by parliament’s powerful joint committee on law enforcement, challenging the Albanese government’s assertion that problems identified in a secret report had been fixed.
This masthead and 60 Minutes revealed on Monday the Australian Federal Police’s top-secret undercover program had been compromised by systemic failures, including outdated technology, inadequate security and a box-ticking approach to psychological support.
Law enforcement committee chair senator Helen Polley, right, made the referral to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’ office.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Law enforcement committee chair senator Helen Polley on Thursday wrote to lawyer Rebekah Giles, who is acting for three AFP officers and their families in a defective administration claim, to reveal she had made a referral to Dreyfus’ office.
A defective administration claim allows federal public servants to make a compensation claim against the Commonwealth for loss or damage, and for an ex gratia payment to be made.
Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana questioned whether the safety standards of the program were sufficient.
Caruana said the police union had been dealing with the issue of undercover officers’ safety for at least four years and “we are coming into our members’ fourth Christmas where they are still looking over their shoulders”.
Continue reading about the issue here.
Extremist West Bank settlers will be barred from US, Blinken announces
Turning overseas, the US State Department will impose visa bans against individuals involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the occupied West Bank.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the new visa restriction policy in a statement on Tuesday.
The restrictions will target those who have committed acts of violence or taken other actions that restrict civilians’ access to essential services and necessities and may also apply to those individuals’ family members, Blinken said.
Israeli settlements sit behind a wire security fence along a road outside of Hebron during increased tensions between Palestinians and Israelis in Hebron, West Bank.Credit: Getty
The statement did not identify any individuals facing visa bans, or say how many would be targeted.
President Joe Biden and other senior US officials have warned repeatedly that Israel must act to stop violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, which has increased since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
“We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank,” Blinken said.
Read the full story here, from Reuters.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning, and thanks for your company.
It’s Wednesday, December 6. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started:
- Australian teenagers are almost two full academic years behind students who went to school in the early 2000s, while the gap between rich and poor students has grown.
- State premiers are pressing for more federal help to deal with growing pressure on public hospitals in a national cabinet deal today.
- Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has been asked to investigate the treatment of undercover police operatives by parliament’s powerful joint committee on law enforcement.
- Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said he hoped the creation of a new French-Australian think tank would help cultivate a more independent Australian foreign policy.
- The controversial training college for podiatric surgeons is lobbying for millions of dollars in subsidies, even as the health minister said industry standards were “deeply concerning”.
- A woman who was forcibly strip-searched at Doha Airport believes gender is partly behind Qatar Airways’ refusal to apologise for forcing her to undergo invasive examinations.
- Australia has taken a major step on the path towards the phase-out of fossil fuels, joining 39 nations in a commitment to end international finance for climate polluting projects.
- Overseas, White House officials warned the United States is running out of time and money to help Ukraine fight its war against Russia.
Let’s get into it.
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