Federal Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has shut down a call from a New South Wales State Government MP for Australia to stop accepting Middle Eastern refugees. In the wake of the terror attacks in Paris, Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser wrote a “message to Malcolm Turnbull” on social media on Monday. “Australia does not need Middle Eastern refugees or Islamic ...

The first Syrian family of the 12,000 humanitarian intake of refugees, who will arrive in Perth before Tuesday evening, are expected to settle into their new home quickly. Social Services Minister Christian Porter said the family of five – comprising two parents and three children – were from Homs, in western Syria, and had gone through rigorous processing and scrutiny. ...

Australian parents have expressed anger after a photo emerged of a group of four customers buying two trolley-loads of baby formula from a Woolworths store. The photo, originally posted by mother-of-two Jessica Hay, was taken at Woolworths at Epping Plaza in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon and showed nearly a pallet-load of hard-to-find A2 Platinum baby formula being wiped out in ...

Inmates have lit fires at Australia’s Christmas Island detention centre in a “major disturbance”, government officials said. The unrest was sparked by the death of a detainee who had escaped the camp. The situation was “tense” for a while, the department said, but was now calm. Negotiations were continuing with those detainees protesting to resolve the situation “peacefully and as ...

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull announced on Monday that the title of knights and dames will be removed from the Order of Australia as they are “not appropriate” in a modern Australian honours system. “Knights and dames are titles that are really anachronistic, out of date, not appropriate, in 2015,” he said. Former PM Tony Abbott reintroduced knighthoods and damehoods in 2014 for “pre-eminent Australians.” Mr ...

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced plans of new laws by mid-2016 which will ban merchants from imposing unfair credit card surcharges. The plan is response to the financial system inquiry made by former Commonwealth Bank boss David Murray, which recommends a new three system of surcharging, with a total ban on surcharges for debit cards and a cap on levies for using Visa and MasterCard. Under the ...

A Somali woman, aged 23, is reportedly more than 12 weeks pregnant, has been brought to Australia for treatment after being raped in the Nauruan community. Her lawyer George Newhousee said, “Our client is relieved that there has been a resolution to this sensitive matter. She is now in Australia and the Commonwealth Government has agreed to provide her with medical treatment.” “Our client has ...

The Australian newspaper has revealed that the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was using a private email server for government business. The former communications minister said that Mr Turnbull used secret messaging application “Wickr” earlier this year because it provided superior security. “Wickr” allows users to send encrypted messages to other users of the application, without leaving traceable data, with the messages self-destructing after being ...

The Nauruan government has promised that it will process 600 asylum seeker applications “within the next week”, which means those refugees will be free to move around the island. All refugees who have tried to get to Australia by boat are detained in offshore centres in Nauru because of the Australian government policy. Justice minister of Naruru, David Adeang said Australia will be providing assistance with security and ...

Sydney police have arrested a student on the way to Arthur Phillip High School this morning. The student is in the same school with the 15-year-old student, Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar, who shot a NSW police employee dead at Parramatta’s police headquarters on Friday. Farhad Jabar was killed by police after he shot Mr Cheng dead. The student claimed that he was using his mobile phone to film officers who ...