TRANSCRIPT
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says the government remains frustrated by a High Court ruling that the indefinite detention of people seeking asylum in Australia is illegal, regardless of whether they were considered a community safety risk.
Mr Burke says the N-Z-Y-Q ruling in 2023 has created a high legal threshold for the preventative detention of stateless asylum seekers, disrupting the government's efforts to lock them up.
He tells Sky News his department is trying to find a way around the ruling to ensure former detainees who do not hold a visa are forced to leave the country.
"The reality is the legal thresholds that we are stuck with, because of some decisions of the high court, are more difficult to be able to reach than I want them to be. That's why I introduced laws last year to have a different pathway. A pathway to say 'well if preventative detention is hard, I certainly don't want people who've had their visas cancelled to be in the community at all. Because, if your visas are cancelled, you should be leaving the country. And that's why we've introduced laws for third countries for people to be sent to."
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New South Wales Premier Chris Minns says his government's priority is tackling the state's housing crisis by boosting supply with development-friendly policies.
It comes as a development in North Strathfield, in Sydney's inner-west, has become the first to deliver homes using the Minns government's infill affordable housing bonus.
Under the bonus, the government will offer height and floor space bonuses of up to 30 per cent for residential developments when at least 10 to 15 per cent of the total floor area is devoted to affordable housing.
The North Strathfield project has delivered 29 affordable homes and 143 market homes.
Mr Minns says the ability for young people to have a future in New South Wales will depend on how the state government tackles housing.
"If we wanna make sure the next generation are not, for the first time in perhaps a century, less well off and less economically able than their previous generation then we've gotta solve this housing crisis. And we are gonna have to accept this challenge head-on and do what Tokyo, Auckland and increasingly Vancouver have done and make major strides to let young people get a roof over their head and claim a bit of the future of the greatest place to live on earth."
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Shutting down illegal tobacco shops, hefty fines, and jail terms have been floated as measures to curb the booming black market in tobacco in New South Wales.
The illegal tobacco trade has been linked the gang activity and firebombings in New South Wales, and around the country.
The move would give the health ministry and magistrates the power to close down businesses secretly selling the products and penalise landlords if their tenants carry the illegal items.
For serious offenders, state Opposition leader Mark Speakman says he wants prison sentences of up to seven years or $1.5 million fines.
"Illegal tobacco is a scourge in New South Wales. Some of our streets are starting to look like Underbelly and Chris Minns has opened the door. Families are fed up, honest shopkeepers are being priced out and criminals are walking away with bags of money. This is a scourge that has to stop. Chris Minns has been asleep at the wheel. Today, we're telling criminals that if you want to sell illegal tobacco you'll be facing million-dollar fines and facing seven years in jail. If you're a landlord looking the other way, we'll look at you next."
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Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has used his official campaign launch to warn Tasmanians against voting for what he calls single-issue independents in the upcoming state election.
Mr Rockliff says the fact the last two elections have been caused by the collapse of minority governments shows voting for independents simply causes uncertainty.
He says they are threatening Tasmania's future.
Opinion polls show, though that both major parties may struggle top get to the 18 lower house seats needed to govern in their own right, meaning independents may again be very important.
The state election will be held on the 19th of July.
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Owners of machetes or swords have three months to surrender their weapons as another state falls into line with an Australia-wide crackdown on dangerous knives.
The surrender of the blades, to be classified as prohibited weapons, takes effect in South Australia from July.
They can be handed in anonymously until the end of September following the passage of tough new laws after a spate of stabbings in neighbouring Victoria.
The move also comes after Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and W-A have all introduced tough laws in recent months in a bid to combat the growing number of knife crimes.
Along with the ban on machetes and swords, the South Australian government is raising the purchase age for all dangerous knives from 16 to 18.
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In football, Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca claims the summer weather means the United States is not the appropriate place to hold the Club World Cup competition- just one year before the country co-hosts the men's World Cup.
Chelsea has advanced to the Club World Cup quarter-finals after beating Benfica, four goals to one, in Charlotte.
The match that was delayed two hours because of a storm warning- and it's not the first match in this competition that has been delayed under these circumstances... which Maresca says shows the U-S is unsuitable.
"It's already seven, eight, nine games that they've suspended here. I think it's a joke, to be honest. It's not football. I can understand that for security reasons, you have to suspend the game. But, if you suspend seven or eight games, that means that this is probably not the right place to do this competition."
Chelsea will play Brazilian side Palmeiras in the quarter-finals, after Palmeiras beat fellow Brazilian side Botafogo, one goal to nil.
