Welcome to SBS News in Easy English, I'm Sue Lannin.
Children as young as 10 can now face jail time in the Northern Territory with the parliament passing laws to lower the age of criminal responsibility .
The change is part of the new Country Liberal Party's election promise to make criminal laws tougher.
These include making it harder to get bail while waiting for a criminal case to be heard by a court, and wider powers allowing police to search school students for knives.
The previous Labor government had raised the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 years old.
That move was welcomed by Aboriginal leaders and child protection advocates.
However, the Northern Territory chief minister Lia Finocchiaro says the government is lowering the age to stop children from committing serious and violent crimes.
"We know reverting to a system where it is the judge's discretion around what to do with a 10 and 11-year-old creates much better opportunities for authorities to intervene early in their lives."
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The number of homes available for rent in Australia has dropped for the third month in a row.
Property market firm, PropTrack, says the increase in rental properties over the first half of 2024 seems to have come to an end.
Sydney’s rental vacancy rate fell to 1.56 per cent in September.
However, the rental vacancy rate in Melbourne, Adelaide and Darwin did not fall.
Meanwhile, Australia's Treasurer Jim Chalmers has rejected calls by the Australian Greens party to scrap tax concessions for property investors,which are known as negative gearing.
The Greens party claims that changing negative gearing laws could help nearly 300,000 Australian renters become owner according to parliamentary research that the Greens commissioned.
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Israel says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in the Gaza Strip, with the country's Foreign Minister Israel Katz calling it a victory for the free world.
The Hamas leader is believed to be behind the October 7 attack last year which triggered the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Mr Katz says Israel conducted dental and DNA tests to confirm Sinwar's identity.
Deputy United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq says the U-N is monitoring the situation.
"Our message has not changed. We have wanted the fighting to be halted. We have wanted civilians to be protected. We have, as I just mentioned, wanted the release of all of the hostages. And we've wanted improved humanitarian access through Gaza at a time when, as I said at the start, the the risk of tremendous malnutrition and of famine are once again alarming."
Over the past year, the conflict has left more than 1200 Israelis dead and killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
Back home, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has backed calls for a ceasefire after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Ms Wong says his death could lead to an end to the year long conflict.
"Sinwar was a terrorist who caused untold suffering to so many people, and his violence culminated in the worst loss of Jewish life on a single day Since the Holocaust, Sinwar's death is an opportunity for this war to end. We again, call for ceasefire. We again call for all the hostages to come home."
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And in sport, Russia is again criticising the International Olympic Committee for what it says is the politicisation of sport.
Russia's Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev says each country's olympic organisation needs to maintain dialogue without insulting each other.
The comments come after Russia was barred from competing at this year's Paris Olympics because of international concerns over the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Olympic movement was trying to make sport a platform for capitalism, unnatural behaviour and the denial of traditional values.
I'm Sue Lannin. This is the SBS News in Easy English.
