There’s an ad on TV that starts: “If you were me, what would you do next?” If I were Tony Abbott, I’d scheme to get a new treasurer without the existing one blowing me up.
Many commentators on climate change articles in this publication have abandoned hope that effective action on climate change will happen under an Abbott government. The only solution for those concerned…
The message that terrorism is exceptional and egregious will be compromised if the current citizenship revocation bill becomes law.
AAP/Dan Peled
Multiple concerns have been raised about the citizenship-stripping bill’s inattention to human rights, its differential impact upon dual and sole nationals, and its potential application to persons who commit relatively minor crimes.
The implications of recent and proposed policy changes for new immigrants and potential citizens are still uncertain.
AAP/Dan Peled
The shift to Immigration and Border Protection – and the creation of the Australian Border Force – is the most profound change in the Department of Immigration’s history.
Malcolm Turnbull has called for a more robust dialogue on national security, where measures are free to be challenged.
AAP/Stefan Postles
The continual use of colourful language when talking about terrorism exaggerates the threat in Australia and could play into the hands of Islamic State’s sophisticated recruitment strategies.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said counter-terrorism measures should be right and effective, not just tough.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Malcolm Turnbull has warned against overestimating the Islamic State threat and amplifying its significance, in a speech contrasting sharply with Tony Abbott’s declarations.
The UK requires that new citizens know English. It formally tests for competency.
EPA/Andy Rain
Australia should learn from the UK’s mistakes if taking a leaf out of its book on citizenship reform.
Karen Nettleton, whose daughter and grandchildren are currently in Syria, has a made a public plea for her family to be allowed to return to Australia.
ABCTV
Whatever we think of the family of foreign fighter Khaled Sharrouf or their circumstances, they enjoy the right to return on the same footing as every other Australian citizen.
Zaky Mallah argued that the government’s policies play into the hands of ‘recruitment propaganda’ designed to appeal to alienated young Muslims.
ABC TV
The parliamentary budget session has ended with Tony Abbott having reason to feel a good deal more confident than Bill Shorten.
The government’s bill introduces three means for revoking a dual national’s Australian citizenship under amendments to the Australian Citizenship Act.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Should the bill be enacted in its current form, Australian citizenship will be able to be stripped from dual nationals by bureaucratic determination for conduct that is defined with reference to the criminal law.
Zaky Mallah’s inclusion on Q&A has received high criticism from members of the government.
ABC
Zaky Mallah, the former terrorism suspect at the centre of the Q&A storm, travelled to the studio in a free bus the program puts on to take audience members from Sydney’s western suburbs
The determined avoidance of reference to human rights is a tactic, by both sides of politics, to avoid accountability.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
No-one is inclined to refer to human rights in public debate in Australia when its leaders either avoid the idea or attack it, and the news media are silent on it.
Climate change will affect defence personnel themselves, as well as the kind of situations they find themselves deployed in.
AAP Image/Australian Department of Defence, Corporal Ricky Fuller
Nations such as the United States have treated climate change as a major security threat for years. The Australian government’s forthcoming Defence White Paper cannot afford to ignore the issue.
If their deaths fighting for Islamic State in Iraq are confirmed, Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar would be far from the first foreign fighters to be killed in the history of combat.
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Foreign fighters have always posed a dual challenge: how to stop them going and what to do if they return. History offers lessons on managing these problems, including that it’s hard to stop them leaving.
Australia has been reluctant to treat Islamic State as a sovereign entity under international law.
AAP/Dean Lewins
In its rush to deny overseas fighters their Australian citizenship, the government must ensure it doesn’t end up endorsing the very thing it wants to repudiate.
Bill Shorten is grappling simultaneously with two issues that have the potential to inflict serious damage on him and the opposition.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
When Bill Shorten was asked by the Royal Commission into union corruption to appear before it, he said he wouldn’t be commenting on allegations about his time as an Australian Workers Union official until he gave evidence.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten was forced to ask for his testimony to the royal commission on union corruption to be brought forward in the wake of media stories about union deals.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Bill Shorten’s July 8 appearance before the royal commission into union corruption is crucial for his credibility and has major implications for his leadership.
Australia’s reaction to revelations that its citizens were fighting for IS follows a pattern of intellectual and state fear-mongering.
AAP/Lukas Coch
If governments are to maintain public support for their military ventures, war narratives must be kept simple and consistent. The underlying message must not change: the West is always the innocent victim of terrorism, never its perpetrator.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s hardline stance on terrorism is feeding into a national concern about threats, this year’s Lowy poll indicates.
AAP/Mick Tsikas