Australia spent more than $9m for each asylum seeker held on Nauru last year – so why can’t they afford to buy food?

Many of the more than 100 people awaiting processing on the tiny Pacific island are skipping meals to make ends meet, a new survey has found * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Most refugees and asylum seekers held in Nauru’s detention centres says they cannot afford to buy enough food or access clean drinking water, despite the Australian government spending the equivalent of more than $9m per person last financial year. The group of more than 100 people have been sent indefinitely to the tiny Pacific island while they wait for their asylum claims to be processed. Many of the cohort say they are skipping meals to make ends meet, according to a new survey by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) advocacy group. Continue reading...

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Jail and a $10,000 fine: former political staffer shares fear over MP complaint system

An Australian parliamentary workplace watchdog was created to clean up bad behaviour in the seat of government – but some are questioning its efficacy

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States tell Albanese government that NDIS changes could mean people with disabilities are shifted into hospitals

Plan to move 240,000 people off scheme leads states and territories to jointly warn they can’t ‘deliver like-for-like services to people who are exited from the NDIS’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast State and territory disability ministers have rung alarm bells over the Albanese government’s proposed overhaul of the NDIS, warning they can’t deliver “like-for-like services” for more than 200,000 participants expected to be shifted off the scheme by 2031. The Albanese government’s national disability insurance scheme bill is designed to dramatically curb the growth of the $50bn-a-year scheme by first reducing budgets and then the number of people who can access it from 2028. Continue reading...

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Escapes, fires, stabbing: catastrophic security failures revealed in Australia’s immigration detention network

Exclusive: ICE-linked private prison operator blamed for catastrophic security failures in Australia’s immigration detention network

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Australians may only be able to access NDIS if ‘all appropriate’ treatment options exhausted, documents reveal

Exclusive: Sweeping overhaul expected to be introduced to parliament Thursday as Greens warn proposal is ‘extraordinarily alarming’ Australians with a disability would first need to exhaust “all appropriate” treatment options for their impairment to be eligible for the national disability insurance scheme under strict entry criteria to help curb the program’s soaring costs. The proposed test is expected to start in 2028 and existing participants could be forced off the scheme if they don’t meet the requirement. Continue reading...

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Something has changed in Australia. The voters of Farrer may tell us what, and how much

The major parties look like also-rans in the byelection on 9 May, with One Nation and an independent favoured to fight it out. Is this a minor curiosity, or a political earthquake?

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Cuts to NDIS to be focus of Labor’s quietly launched ‘razor gang’ ahead of May budget

Exclusive: Taskforce led by former Treasury official Anthea Long will advise on cost-cutting options for $52bn program * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Labor has quietly established a razor gang to drive budget savings in the national disability insurance scheme, as it works to further rein in costs ahead of next month’s federal budget. An NDIS Sustainability Taskforce was established within the health department earlier this year, with instructions from the federal government and national cabinet to advise on cost-cutting options for the $52bn program. Continue reading...

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Pauline Hanson charged taxpayers almost $9,000 for private plane to event honouring Gina Rinehart donation

Details of flight come as One Nation leader faces scrutiny over her use of taxpayer-funded entitlements

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Andrew Hastie revealed conservative Liberals’ true immigration agenda in the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack

In an interview with Sky News’ Andrew Clennell, Hastie ended any pretence that his grievances might have been purely numerical * Full report: Bondi terror attack * Victims of Bondi beach shooting * What we know so far about the Bondi terror attack As details of the Bondi beach massacre started to emerge on Sunday evening, Andrew Hastie posted a video with his immediate reaction to his large social media following. Standing at a beach, the sun yet to set over his electorate south of Perth, the Liberal MP said in a 60-second video posted to Facebook and Instagram: “I am angry, and I know you are too. Continue reading...

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Australia deporting refugee to Nauru may cause his ‘imminent’ and ‘preventable’ death, court hears

Legal team of man who was part of cohort of non-citizens freed after high court decision argues Nauru’s medical facilities are ‘insufficient’ to treat his severe asthma * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Lawyers for an Iranian refugee Australia wants to deport to Nauru say there is a “real risk he will die” there, setting the stage for a showdown against the federal government’s $2.5bn NZYQ deal. The case surrounding the Iranian refugee, known as TXCM, who was granted a 30-year visa for Nauru in February and subsequently placed back into immigration detention after being freed by the 2023 high court ruling, was heard in the high court on Tuesday. Continue reading...

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‘Day by day I lose weight’: asylum seekers on Nauru get $115 a week, but a bag of grapes costs $20

Prohibited from working, people sent to the island by Australia say they are struggling to survive because food is so expensive * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Asylum seekers sent to Nauru by Australia say they are going hungry on the island, prohibited from working to support themselves and given insufficient money to buy enough food. Others say they fear the Nauru government will deport them to their home countries, from where they say they have fled persecution and violence. Continue reading...

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Reform Australia: who is behind the new rightwing group recruiting at an anti-immigration rally?

Digital footprint offers clues about who may be involved in the political venture being promoted on pamphlets at the Put Australia First event in Sydney

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Nauru president accused in parliament of corruption siphoning off millions of Australian funding

Senate told Albanese government knew current president David Adeang was ‘seriously corrupt’ but still signed the $2.5bn deportation deal

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Nauru president floats returning NZYQ refugees to home countries, in interview Australia tried to suppress

In an interview kept secret since February, David Adeang wrongly stated the people Australia has begun deporting to his country are not refugees * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Nauru may seek to return refugees from the NZYQ cohort to their home countries, the Nauruan president has said, in an interview officially translated into English for the first time, and which the Australian government sought to keep hidden. David Adeang’s interview erroneously claimed those being sent to Nauru were not refugees and said Nauru may seek to return them to their countries of origin where possible. Continue reading...

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Climate of fear: are CSIRO’s sweeping job cuts a sign Australia doesn’t care about the extinction crisis?

Ever decreasing funding for the globally respected government agency mirrors an industry-wide trend that could hinder scientific breakthroughs * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Sweeping job cuts across the nation’s science agency this week have been foreshadowed for months, but the sheer scale of them has left many researchers within laboratories and offices across the country shocked. Up to 350 research roles are on the cutting room floor across key areas – including environment, human health and minerals – as leaders of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) attempt to steer the agency from a steep funding cliff. Continue reading...

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Secret translation of Nauruan president’s interview on NZYQ deal with Australia to stay suppressed for decade

Penny Wong says translation notes were ‘taken hastily’ by official who was not accredited translator and were ‘for internal purposes only’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A top secret translation of the Nauruan president’s public commentary on the NZYQ deal will remain suppressed for a decade after the Albanese government considered its release “inappropriate”. Nauru declined to endorse an informal translation by Australia’s High Commission of the 10-minute public interview uploaded to Facebook in February, nor did it provide its own translation, newly released documents reveal. Continue reading...

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Albanese government deports two more men to Nauru in secret, infuriating human rights advocates

Exclusive: Sources say a Sudanese national and another man chartered to former regional processing centre last week, joining one other person

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‘Seed of hope’: Gaza grandmother is reunited with her Australian family after more than a decade

A kiss to the forehead marked the culmination of years of work to get Shamikh Badra’s 79-year-old Palestinian mother, Fatma, to Australia.

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‘Seed of hope’: Gaza grandmother is reunited with her Australian family after more than a decade

A kiss to the forehead marked the culmination of years of work to get Shamikh Badra’s 79-year-old Palestinian mother, Fatma, to Australia. * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Shamikh Badra couldn’t hold the tears back when he got to hold his 79-year-old mother, Fatma, for the first time in 11 years. Standing in the bustling arrivals hall at Sydney airport last Friday evening, as passengers streamed off a flight from Amman, Jordan via Singapore and were embraced by their families, he bent down to wrap his arms around her and planted a single kiss on her forehead. Continue reading...

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‘Heat deaths aren’t a thing’: Coalition MPs weighing net zero given presentation casting doubt on climate science

Exclusive: Briefing by conservative think-tank Centre for Independent Studies was arranged by a Coalition backbench committee * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Coalition MPs weighing up whether to abandon net zero have been briefed on research that argued “heat deaths aren’t a thing”, played down the prospect of substantial sea level rises and claimed “no one has ever made low-cost energy” from wind and solar. Guardian Australia has viewed slides from a presentation the conservative thinktank Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) gave to MPs in Canberra this week, along with the findings of private polling on net zero. Continue reading...

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Adnan thought he’d served his time. But one night border force raided his home to deport him to Nauru

Australian authorities have been accused of copying the ‘worst tactics of ICE’ in their treatment of the NZYQ cohort * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Adnan* says he had never heard of Nauru when Australian Border Force officers showed up at his door in the middle of the night to inform him Nauru had granted him a 30-year visa. Initially believing Nauru was part of Australia, Adnan felt a brief sense of relief before he realised he was being sent back to a place he had become uncomfortably familiar with – immigration detention. Continue reading...

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Adnan thought he’d served his time. But one night border force raided his home to deport him to Nauru

Australian authorities have been accused of copying the ‘worst tactics of ICE’ in their treatment of the NZYQ cohort

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The mood is ominous at CSIRO as jobs disappear ‘by stealth’ – and staff are wondering who’s next

National scientific agency has been ‘reshaping its research portfolio’ since 2024, to deal with an imminent funding cliff * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The mood in parts of Australia’s national scientific agency is low after a mystery number of AI, robotics and data researchers were quietly let go within the last year. Since the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation announced it was “reshaping its research portfolio” to deal with an imminent funding cliff in 2024, speculation about whose jobs are on the line has spread like wildfire. Continue reading...

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Refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru going hungry despite government spending $1.5m a year for each person

The Australian government is spending millions of dollars a year to house asylum seekers, yet many say they can not afford food and are forced to skip meals

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Mass slaughter in Gaza stands apart from other genocides, Chris Sidoti says: ‘People cannot escape’

Australian human rights expert who was on UN commission of inquiry labels Israel’s strategy a failure that ‘has not brought peace and has not destroyed Hamas’

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US private prisons operator to be paid $790m to hold 100 people on Nauru in quiet expansion of contract

Exclusive: A sixteenfold increase in the original contract without public notification raises allegations of ‘gross mismanagement’ and a process ‘run out of control’

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Liberal MPs speak up about ‘disturbing’ Advance campaign against ‘mass immigration’

Several MPs say the activist group’s advertising push is becoming a problem for the party because ‘you cannot win from the margins’ * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Several Liberal MPs have raised concerns an anti-immigration campaign by the activist group Advance is hurting the party’s brand and alienating migrant communities. Analysis of Advance’s Meta advertising since May’s federal election shows it has promoted 44 anti-immigration ads, with more than 1.5m impressions. Continue reading...

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Netanyahu lashes out at Albanese as ‘weak politician who betrayed Israel’ as diplomatic row escalates

Israel’s prime minister accuses Australian leader of ‘abandoning’ Jews as tension escalates over visa cancellation and Palestinian recognition

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Israel’s foreign minister revokes visas of Australian representatives to Palestinian Authority

The move follows Australia’s refusal of a visa for the far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman

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‘It’s a takeover’: the South Australian power player reshaping the state Liberal party

Charismatic senator Alex Antic has risen to the top of factional state politics, bringing his conservative religious supporters with him. Is it a roadmap for the national Liberal party’s existential c...

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