Malcolm Turnbull replaced Tony Abbot as Prime Minister after a leadership ballot. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton retained his position in the cabinet reshuffle despite earlier in the week having offered to resign. The Indonesian government welcomed the leadership change, suggesting an opportunity to improve diplomatic relations with the new government.
The Turnbull Government consulted with the Refugee Resettlement Advisory Council on the mechanics of settling 12,000 Syrian refugees expected to arrive in Australia between now and the end of the year. The majority of the extra refugees are expected to be resettled in Sydney and Melbourne, where the bulk of Australia's Syrian community lives.
The federal court found that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s investigation in to a data breach which published the details of almost 10,000 asylum seekers, was designed to fail. The court said the immigration department responded to the data in a way that was ‘unfair to a significant degree’ and had not provided procedural fairness to asylum seekers affected.
An Afghan refugee who had his visa cancelled due to child pornography convictions set himself alight at a West Australian immigration detention centre after previous bids to end his own life.
The refugee crisis in Europe continues as Hungary closed the border between Serbia and Hungary. The UNHCR has again called for European Union member states to reach agreement on a plan to relocate up to 120,000 refugees.
Read the Kaldor Centre’s Weekly News Roundup.