• 43 mins ago

Malcolm Turnbull's "ring of steel" asylum seeker arrangements designed to buttress his new US resettlement deal could be weakened by Labor, Greens and crossbench opposition to a proposed lifetime visa ban on post-2013 boat arrivals.

• 1 hr ago

Every Australian prime minister from John Howard onward should be investigated for crimes against humanity in relation to the indefinite detention of asylum seekers, a group of international lawyers claims.

The federal government will require a new operator for the triple-zero call service to base all of its call centres in Australia and to guard against the type of cyber threats that caused the census debacle.

With the rise of cashless payments and internet shopping, the production of coins has been dwindling for a decade. Until now.

Canberra's get-out-of-jail card on the future of the hundreds of Australia-bound refugees on Nauru and Manus Island may have a very short shelf-life, with the head of a prominent US anti-immigration think tank warning: "this is the kind of thing the Trump administration will nix on Day 1."

Secret discussions to resettle asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island in the United States have been underway since January, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has revealed. 

Your personally curated news with six things you need to know before you get going.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has used the breakthrough refugee resettlement deal with the United States as an opportunity to heap praise on Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and his predecessor in the portfolio, Treasurer Scott Morrison, whom he says have been unfairly maligned.

• COMMENT

Not a moment too soon, Malcolm Turnbull has delivered a pathway to end the suffering of around 2000 refugees who have spent more than three years in tormented limbo on Manus Island and Nauru.

There is a fear and confusion among asylum-seekers on Nauru - as well as joy for some- as they struggle to assess the impact on their fractured lives of Sunday's announcement of a resettlement deal with the United States.

Eight years in the making, the giant Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal between Australia, the US and ten other regional powers is as good as dead after the Obama administration walked away from its plan to put it before the "lame duck" of Congress ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as president.

The seeds of disquiet that helped deliver Donald Trump his shock victory in the United States are growing in Australia, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has warned.

A "one-off" bilateral agreement that will see some refugees on Manus Island and Nauru resettle in the United States lacks detail and leaves many questions unanswered, refugee advocates say.

In a one-off deal, the United States has agreed to take resettlement referrals for refugees residing at the Nauru and Manus Island offshore detention facilities. The opportunity is only available to those who have already arrived and will not be offered to people who do not attain refugee status or come in future.

Treasurer Scott Morrison is on the mend after emergency surgery in the Canberra Hospital.

Malcolm Turnbull was tight-lipped about how many people the US had agreed to take, and whether Donald Trump would support it.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would not be welcome as an official guest of Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras under a motion passed at the organisation's annual general meeting on Saturday.

"It was four years of chaos with him in here."

The racial discrimination complaint against provocative newspaper cartoonist Bill Leak has been withdrawn.

The Turnbull government will ramp up its boat turnback operations to ensure the people smuggling route from Indonesia remains closed after it unveils its international refugee resettlement deal.

In Queensland, Labor has just as much to lose from the One Nation vote as the conservatives, with the outlier party on track to become a major force in the state's politics.

• COMMENT

Some of the biggest alleged free speech champions on the right of Australian politics have used the defamation law to protect their own reputations even though they are trying to remove the "insult and offend" protection in the Racial Discrimination Act.

Western Sydney Airport project clears a major environmental assessment hurdle.

• EXCLUSIVE

Confidential documents show the Coalition was warned mishandling of reported sexual assaults of female defence cadets may have been marked by "criminal conduct".

• EXCLUSIVE

Australia's offshore detention system would be shut down before the next federal election under a series of international deals.

• ANALYSIS

Can Australia and the region be reassured that Trump will continue to underwrite Pax Americana as has happened in the past? Or will the dealmaker cut some countries loose?

The plebiscite on same-sex marriage is dead, buried and cremated - but could it have a second life? Or will supporters of change be able to agitate for a free vote?

The Turnbull government believes it has plenty of time to sign a deal to transfer immigration detainees to the United States before Donald Trump takes office.

Donald Trump's shock election victory has prompted a big rise in people weighing up a move abroad, with Australia a potential destination.