Michael Gordon is the political editor of The Age.
Politicians don't usually admit to mistakes when they address the national parliament, but veteran Liberal Russell Broadbent confessed to a big one on Monday evening: failing to repudiate colleagues who promote fear and division.
Gillian Triggs also hits out at News Corp and politicians "who have deliberately misunderstood the law".
"This is a message coming to the community, to the families, to the clans."
A refugee who has been helping disabled people on Manus Island has pleaded to be flown off the island for medical treatment after being the victim of a vicious, unprovoked attack over the weekend.
Aboriginal leaders are urging Malcolm Turnbull to abandon the plebiscite on same-sex marriage, convinced an ugly campaign by opponents of equality will damage their prospects for constitutional recognition.
An asylum seeker who says he still suffers nightmares from the violence at Manus Island more than two years ago has been transferred from a Melbourne detention centre to Christmas Island to share a compound with some of Australia's most violent offenders.
The biggest concern about the plebiscite is the huge emotional toll it could take on young people seeing the legitimacy of their identity debated on the national stage.
The Turnbull Government will push the states to introduce targets aimed at reducing spiraling Indigenous incarceration levels in a clear demonstration of willingness to improve relations with Aboriginal leaders.
If Malcolm Turnbull's agreement to help the United States resettle Central American refugees being held in Costa Rica isn't the start of a solution for those on Nauru and Manus Island, it should be.
Malcolm Turnbull is right. Australia does have the world's best border protection policy, if the principal measure of success is that no one gets in without an invitation.
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