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Welcome to SBS News in Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
The Albanese government has strongly defended emergency legislation which could allow courts to send those released from immigration detention back to jail.
Legislation passed through the Senate on Tuesday evening, after three detainees released after a High Court decision that found indefinite detention is illegal, were charged with fresh offences.
It's being debated in the Lower House today.
The federal opposition, which has supported the move to put in place a preventative detention regime usually reserved for terrorists and spies, has proposed additional amendments giving powers to strip dual-nationals of their Australian citizenship.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has rejected these amendments, saying the government does not want to see the proposed laws struck down by the High Court.
"The government believes it has got the balance right, ensuring we have the toughest possible laws, within the constitutional limits set by High Court. We also believe that the amendments would increase the risk of the amendments being found invalid by the High Court."
But Greens Leader Adam Bandt has told the ABC the legislation is a "kneejerk reaction" which does not account for the many released who have not committed crimes.
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The CEO of Australia Post says a plan to modernise Australia Post, which will see letters delivered only every second day, will bring the business in line with customer's digital demands.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has today announced plans to revamp the self-funded and publicly-owned company, shifting its priorities to packages, after recording a more than $200 million loss in the last financial year.
Changes will also see one postie will remain allocated to one round rather than needing to cover several routes, as is currently the case, and priority mail - which makes up eight per cent of addressed letters - revamped in a bid for a faster service.
Australia Post CEO Paul Graham says with half a billion parcels delivered to people in the last year, the changes respond to Australians' growing online shopping demands.
"In the recent cyber-weekend, we had 7.4 million parcels lodged with Australia post, a record for that event, and a 3.9 per cent increase over the same period last year, so it shows people are still shopping and clicking with their fingers with their fingers with great abandon."
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On the sixth day of the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, 63 countries have pledged to deeply cut cooling-related emissions.
The Global Cooling Pledge marks the world's first collective focus on climate-warming emissions from cooling, which includes refrigeration for food and medicine and air conditioning.
It comes as activists attending the summit have voiced their concerns around the high number of fossil fuel lobbyists at the event.
Climate activist Zaki Mamdoo was there.
“It’s ridiculous that this COP has hosted so many fossil fuel lobbyists, who really come here to look for ways in which to continue to make extraordinary and unreasonable profits off the backs of our people and of the destruction of our communities. This is not a space in which those deals and those voices should be represented because those voices carry one mandate, and one mandate alone, and that is to continue destroying the planet in order to make profits.”
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A tropical cyclone may threaten the Queensland coast by early next week.
The Bureau of Meteorology says Cyclone Jasper, a category one system moving slowly south after developing over the Solomon Sea, may intensify into a category four system by tomorrow.
Jasper is not only the first tropical cyclone of the season but is also believed to be the first to form off Australia in December during an El Nino event.
The Bureau of Meteorology says there is still "a degree of uncertainty" where the cyclone may hit the Queensland coast as it tracks southwest through the Coral Sea, but that residents have some preparation time as it approaches.
I'm Catriona Stirrat. This is SBS News in Easy English.
