Syria says Australia won’t repatriate families with alleged ties to Islamic State
A group of Australian women and children who left a camp in Syria that houses people with alleged ties to Islamic State group militants are stuck in the country because Australian authorities have refused to allow their return, Syrian officials said Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.
Thirteen women and children from four families last week left Roj camp, a remote facility near the border with Iraq that houses relatives of suspected militants, on Friday and headed to Syria’s capital.
An official at the camp at the time said the families were expected to remain in Damascus for around 72 hours and then be sent to Australia.
In response to an Associated Press inquiry about their status, Syria’s information ministry said in a statement that after the families left the camp, the foreign ministry was informed that “the Australian government had refused to receive them”.
They were turned back before reaching Damascus international airport, the information ministry’s statement said.
Key events
PM maintains Australia providing ‘no support’ to those families
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said at a news conference on Wednesday that “we are providing no support for repatriation and no assistance for these people”, AP adds.
At a separate news conference in Beijing, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, on Wednesday said that her government has made “very clear that we are not assisting in their repatriation.”
Syria’s information ministry said the families, through a lawyer, had obtained passports that were delivered by an “individual” that it didn’t identify while they were still in north-eastern Syria in an area under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
A previous attempt to return 34 women and children to Australia from the camp in February was turned back by Syrian authorities.
Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have also returned without government assistance.
Syria says Australia won’t repatriate families with alleged ties to Islamic State
A group of Australian women and children who left a camp in Syria that houses people with alleged ties to Islamic State group militants are stuck in the country because Australian authorities have refused to allow their return, Syrian officials said Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.
Thirteen women and children from four families last week left Roj camp, a remote facility near the border with Iraq that houses relatives of suspected militants, on Friday and headed to Syria’s capital.
An official at the camp at the time said the families were expected to remain in Damascus for around 72 hours and then be sent to Australia.
In response to an Associated Press inquiry about their status, Syria’s information ministry said in a statement that after the families left the camp, the foreign ministry was informed that “the Australian government had refused to receive them”.
They were turned back before reaching Damascus international airport, the information ministry’s statement said.
Good morning, and welcome to Thursday. Nick Visser here to take you through the day’s news. As always, let’s get to it.
Rental market has ‘disappeared’ for those on lowest incomes, Anglicare warns
Cait Kelly
Anglicare Australia has warned the housing crisis could become a permanent feature of the system, as its latest rental affordability snapshot shows people on the lowest incomes have no access to the private rental market.
The Snapshot surveyed nearly 49,000 rental listings across Australia and found that:
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Just 1 rental (0%) nationwide was affordable for a person on jobseeker
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0 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person on youth allowance
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Just 0.2% of rentals were affordable for a single person on the age pension
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A full-time minimum wage worker could afford just 0.5% of listings
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Even a couple with two minimum-wage incomes could afford only 14.8% of rentals.
Anglicare Australia executive director, Kasy Chambers, said the results show a system that is failing ordinary Australians:
double quotation mark The housing crisis is not a short-term shock. It is a design feature of the system.For people on the lowest incomes, the private rental market has all but disappeared. There are no affordable homes for young people out of work, and just one across the entire country for someone on jobseeker.
This is what happens when we build a system around investors and hope that housing will trickle down.
The findings come as the government considers changes to investor tax breaks in the budget. Chambers urged the government to push ahead with tax reforms and use the savings to invest directly in housing.
Bondi royal commission interim report to be handed down
Nino Bucci
An interim report by the antisemitism royal commissioner, Virginia Bell, is expected to be released on Thursday.
Bell was appointed to lead the royal commission after the Bondi terror attack and her interim report is expected to focus on intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
She is expected to “identify other issues requiring urgent or immediate action” and make recommendations about these issues in the report, according to a spokesperson for the commission.
The report will include information given to the commission through submissions, notices to produce and meetings, rather than in public or private hearings.
The first block of public hearings are expected to start on Monday and will focus on experiences of antisemitism.
The inquiry was established after December’s massacre, in which two gunmen shot and killed 15 people and injured 40 others as they attended a beachside Hanukah event for the Jewish community.
Naveed Akram, 24, faces 15 charges of murder and 40 of attempted murder in relation to the attack. His 50-year-old father, Sajid, was shot dead by police.
Australia may need to spend more on Aukus, US committee head says
Luca Ittimani
A top member of a US Congress committee overseeing Aukus has said Australia may be required to spend more to ensure American shipbuilders can deliver promised nuclear submarines.
Australia has already sent the US about $3bn (US$2bn) of the $4bn (US$3bn) it committed to invest in American manufacturers in 2023, when the plan was forecast to cost Australia $368bn by the mid-2050s.
Joe Courtney, a senior US Democrat, said US politicians appreciated that investment but more may be needed. He told ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday:
double quotation mark I don’t think the US$3bn number, which is in the optimal pathway, is the Ten Commandments. I think that, as this enterprise unfolds, there may be a rationale for Australia to participate more, but, as I said, at this point, the commitment of US$3bn [and] already the transmittal [sic] of US$2bn of that commitment is something that most people, certainly on Capitol Hill, still remark and comment very favourably and appreciate.
Courtney also backed the warnings of a UK committee this week that British shipbuilders may not be able to deliver the Aukus subs, saying more investment would be needed for the UK to deliver.
But he said the US Navy’s V-Adm Robert Gaucher had told him days earlier that the US’s goal of boosting manufacturing to an average of 2.3 submarines a year by 2032 was on track. Courtney also dismissed Donald Trump’s “unfair” and “gratuitous shots” at Australia, saying:
“Aukus is a long-term security agreement. It’s going to take place and evolve … It’s going to be something that will rise above this time that we are living in right now with the Trump administration.”
Penny Wong says China has agreed to help with jet fuel exports
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says China has agreed to work to facilitate exports of jet fuel, in an attempt to ease supply disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East, AFP reports.
China, a major exporter of jet fuel and diesel to Australia and other countries, has avoided the worst of the war’s energy impacts thanks to its vast oil stocks, but paused exports at the start of the war to protect its domestic supplies.
“I can confirm … that the Chinese government is facilitating engagement with Australian businesses on jet fuel,” Wong told reporters in Beijing after talks with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, and the Chinese vice-president, Han Zheng.
She added that the move was “an important step, however, it is the first step”.
Earlier in the day, Wong had told Han that refineries in the Indo-Pacific region were disproportionately affected by the blockage of the strait of Hormuz.
In the talks, she called for greater reciprocity in trade, emphasising that Australia’s steady supply of raw materials and food to China should be matched by a reliable flow of gasoline, kerosene and fertilisers back to Australia.
“I made the point that the import inputs China supplies to Australia, including jet fuel, support the Australian resources sector, which in turn helps to maintain the flow of commodities that are so important in the bilateral trading relationship,” Wong told the press conference.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
Penny Wong has been busy on her latest overseas trip, saying China has agreed to negotiate on jet fuel sales to help ease the global oil crisis.
An interim report by the antisemitism royal commissioner, Virginia Bell, is expected to be released at 9am. We’ll have the details as soon as it happens.
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