The shift to Immigration and Border Protection – and the creation of the Australian Border Force – is the most profound change in the Department of Immigration’s history.
The continual use of colourful language when talking about terrorism exaggerates the threat in Australia and could play into the hands of Islamic State’s sophisticated recruitment strategies.
Malcolm Turnbull has warned against overestimating the Islamic State threat and amplifying its significance, in a speech contrasting sharply with Tony Abbott’s declarations.
Whatever we think of the family of foreign fighter Khaled Sharrouf or their circumstances, they enjoy the right to return on the same footing as every other Australian citizen.
Should the bill be enacted in its current form, Australian citizenship will be able to be stripped from dual nationals by bureaucratic determination for conduct that is defined with reference to the criminal law.
Zaky Mallah, the former terrorism suspect at the centre of the Q&A storm, travelled to the studio in a free bus the program puts on to take audience members from Sydney’s western suburbs
No-one is inclined to refer to human rights in public debate in Australia when its leaders either avoid the idea or attack it, and the news media are silent on it.
Nations such as the United States have treated climate change as a major security threat for years. The Australian government’s forthcoming Defence White Paper cannot afford to ignore the issue.
Foreign fighters have always posed a dual challenge: how to stop them going and what to do if they return. History offers lessons on managing these problems, including that it’s hard to stop them leaving.
In its rush to deny overseas fighters their Australian citizenship, the government must ensure it doesn’t end up endorsing the very thing it wants to repudiate.
When Bill Shorten was asked by the Royal Commission into union corruption to appear before it, he said he wouldn’t be commenting on allegations about his time as an Australian Workers Union official until he gave evidence.
Bill Shorten’s July 8 appearance before the royal commission into union corruption is crucial for his credibility and has major implications for his leadership.
If governments are to maintain public support for their military ventures, war narratives must be kept simple and consistent. The underlying message must not change: the West is always the innocent victim of terrorism, never its perpetrator.
The government goes into the parliamentary session’s final fortnight on the back foot over two highly contentious issues: its citizenship legislation and Indonesia’s demand to know whether Australia paid…
Simply having judicial review for the contentious power to strip citizenship from dual nationals suspected of involvement with terrorism – without independent merits review – is far from reasonable.
It’s awkward for the government – but very good for the public debate – that the Coalition’s citizenship-stripping initiative coincides with the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. Next Monday’s birthday…