Australians continue to return home from the Middle East; Victoria will become the second state to ban the Nazi salute; Collingwood premiership player Jack Ginnivan has asked to leave the club as the A-F-L trade period closes.
More Australians are expected to return home soon from Israel after emotional reunions at Sydney airport while the government tries to secure the safe return of others unable to leave the Gaza Strip.
A Qatar Airways flight from Dubai carrying more than 200 people landed in Sydney on Tuesday evening.
Some of them were collected from Israel on government flights on Monday while others departed Tel Aviv on the weekend.
A Qantas flight carrying another 200 people is expected to arrive on Wednesday night.
Doug Stevens and his wife who arrived on the Qatar Airways flight said being in the country during the conflict was a surreal experience.
It was just amazing. We were laying in our hotel room, and a missile landed about 150 metres away from us. But Iron Dome is absolutely amazing. It was taking down 98 per cent of them. You could just see the trails of the misses through the sky...and then, puff of smoke...and ...gone. And five, ten minutes later...you're out of the bunkers.
At least 45 Australians remain trapped in Gaza with limited access to water, electricity, fuel and food after Israel imposed a total blockade following attacks by the militant group Hamas from the territory on October 7.
Victoria will become the second Australian state to ban the Nazi salute after a series of high-profile anti-Semitic incidents.
Legislation making it illegal to intentionally display or perform a Nazi gesture or symbol in public passed Victorian parliament on Tuesday night [[October 17]].
The ban, which was prompted by neo-Nazis performing the salute outside Victorian parliament in March, also covers anything closely resembling a Nazi gesture or symbol.
Police will have the power to direct a person to remove a Nazi symbol or gesture from public display, as well as make arrests and lay charges, with those who break the law facing fines of more than $23,000 or 12 months in prison.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it is not respectful to First Nations people to expect the next steps toward reconciliation to be formulated within days of the result of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
He hit back at claims from Opposition leader Peter Dutton that the referendum was a vanity project for the Prime Minister, saying it disregarded the decades of work of Indigenous Australian advocates.
New analysis released today from the Australian Electoral Commission seems to vindicate the government's insistence that the Voice referendum was what First Nations communities wanted.
The data shows that - of the 10 polling booth catchment areas at the referendum with the highest Indigenous population - nine of them returned a 'yes' vote.
Mr Albanese says his government remains committed to reconciliation efforts but it is too soon to detail these plans.
The Uluru statement from the heart was developed over decades, the expectation that the next step should be developed over days, is not respectful. And it’s not one that I will engage in. We will continue to show respect. We’ll take the time to do that. Our commitment to listening to Indigenous Australians is undiminished. Our commitment to closing the gap is undiminished.
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A leading advocate for press freedom says the Australian public should be concerned by laws that impede on the ability of journalists to hold powerful institutions to account and protect their sources.
Peter Greste was working as a correspondent in Egypt when he was arrested and imprisoned on charges of terrorism in 2015.
He says the Egyptian government had used national security legislation to come after journalists it didn't like.
His organisation, the Alliance for Journalist Freedom, published a white paper in 2019 over fears Australia was heading in the same direction.
The paper says journalist's data were being leaked due to intrusive police investigations and confidential sources were being dangerously exposed to prosecution.
He says his organisation is proposing a media freedom act that work in a similar way to human rights legislation in Queensland, the A-C-T, and Victoria.
There, the laws do three very simple things. First, they compel Parliament to always consider human rights whenever they're passing new legislation; they say the courts must always interpret existing legislation in ways that are consistent with human rights; and that civil servants must act in ways that support human rights. Now if we replace the words "human rights" with "media freedom" then I think we're close to a solution that would have profound implications for the relationship between government and the media - and through them, with the people that both are supposed to serve.
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In A-F-L,
Collingwood premiership player Jack Ginnivan will be the headline act in the final hours of the AFL trade period as it finishes tonight [[October 18]].
The dynamic small forward dropped a bombshell on Tuesday [[October 17]] with his management telling the Magpies he wants to be traded, less than three weeks after playing in the club's sixteenth premiership victory.
After a turbulent 12 months for Ginnivan, the Magpies are weighing up his trade request, with the 20-year-old still having a season left on his contract.
As the news emerged, Ginnivan posted a picture of himself on social media in Collingwood's headquarters with the caption "locked in", but the photo was deleted within minutes.
