Michael Gordon is the political editor of The Age.
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.
Amir never had a birth certificate, or a passport, or anything else that provided proof of who he was until he received his P-plate driver's licence after being released from immigration detention on a bridging visa while his claim for refugee status was assessed.
Gillian Triggs has urged Malcolm Turnbull to move quickly to bring asylum seekers who have been held on Nauru and Manus Island to Australia and embrace a suite of new policies to ensure the people smuggling trade does not resume.
The cost of stopping the boats has been calculated at more than $9.6 billion since 2013, and will be another $5.7 billion over the next four years, according to a study by Save the Children and UNICEF.
Malcolm Turnbull's own backers fear they are witnessing the unfolding of a tragedy as epic as the one that destroyed Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
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