To the centre: Liberals enter ‘new era' with leader Sussan Ley
Sussan Ley, the long-time member for the electorate of Farrer in regional NSW, will lead the opposition alongside new deputy Ted O'Brien.
The historic appointment comes after an historic election defeat for the party.
ABC NewsRadio's Rachel Hayter spoke with Federal Vice President of the Liberal Party Fiona Scott, about how the party will reform under Sussan Ley.
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ABC News
13 minutes ago
- ABC News
Report reveals increase in isolations at Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre at Cavan
A new report has revealed isolations at South Australia's only youth detention centre increased by 50 per cent during a period last year and has questioned the legality of their use, with one respondent saying they felt they were being "punished like a dog". The report into the Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre at Cavan, which was tabled in state parliament last Tuesday, found that some children were 'in effect' being isolated as 'a form of punishment' – despite this being prohibited by the state's youth justice regulations. The report found the number of isolations – both ordered by staff and requested by detainees – increased by 50 per cent over a period in 2024. 'The use of isolation as a routine response to complexity, behavioural risk, or staffing constraints undermines the rehabilitative intent of youth detention and reflects a failure to meet required standards of care,' the report states. 'Children and young people report being locked in their rooms for periods with reduced access to education, exercise, or human connection. 'The psychological impact of being isolated without clear explanation or foreseeable end was raised by children and young people as a source of distress.' The Department of Human Services, which manages the facility, was also accused of 'under-reporting and misclassification' of isolation orders at the facility. The report, which examined records from early and mid-2024, was compiled by Training Centre Visitor Shona Reid, who is legislated to advocate for those detained at Kurlana Tapa. Ms Reid said the investigation was prompted by an increase in requests to her office from children and young people 'who felt that they were 'unfairly' being ordered to isolate in their rooms'. The report found that 'in many cases' isolation was used 'without clear adherence to the required legal grounds' and 'in ways that may be perceived by children and young people as punitive or humiliating'. It said isolation in these circumstances was contrary to SA's Charter of Rights for Youths Detained in Training Centres and had "the potential to breach multiple provisions of international law'. 'Serious questions remain about the lawful authority for a range of isolation practices,' the report states under a headline titled 'unlawful or unregulated use of isolation'. One child reportedly described the experience as being 'punished like a dog and forgotten'. Another reportedly said they feared the system would 'never see them as more than their worst moments'. 'These are not isolated accounts,' the report states. Human Services Minister Nat Cook, asked about the report's claim of unlawful or unregulated isolation practices, said she had 'every confidence that the law and the regulations are being followed'. 'I don't believe that the staff are breaching those rules,' she said. 'They're following procedure and keeping children as safe as they possibly can in this environment where things are often heightened.' Ms Cook said Ms Reid's report was using 'quite a long period of data' during which the state government has made 'a range of procedure and staff changes'. She added that the time children and young people were spending in isolation was 'brief'. 'When we look at last year's data for isolation, the average time that a young person or a child spends in an isolation circumstance is 14 minutes,' she said. 'It's not recurring, it's as isolated as it can be in terms of the event, but it's as supported and as comfortable as it can be as well given the feeling and emotion that's being displayed by a young person.' Asked whether staff were properly explaining to children why they were being put in isolation, Ms Cook said: 'There is absolutely a procedure that's followed.' 'I am very confident in the youth justice team … that they make every attempt possible to ensure that young people are spoken to and spoken with and listened to,' she said. Kurlana Tapa, also known as the Adelaide Youth Training Centre, is SA's only youth detention centre. In 2023-24, it had a daily average population of 32 children and young people. Ms Reid's report examined the frequency of both 'staff-ordered' and 'resident requested' isolations. A resident requested isolation occurs when a young person requests to return to their room outside of scheduled lockdown hours to get away from peers. From the third quarter of 2023-24 to the first quarter of 2024-25, the number of staff ordered isolations increased from 162 to 215. Over the same period, the number of resident requested isolations rose from 31 to 100. Ms Reid said the 50 per cent increase in total isolations likely reflected 'a persistently high reliance on the technique of isolation to create separation from peers, especially during education hours and afternoon shifts'. She said the report found one case where a child had spent six hours in isolation because it overlapped across several different administrative isolation times. 'Whilst administratively they're not considered by the staff or the centre as isolation, they're very real experiences for children,' he said. 'We need to be really careful how we use those, and that is why I'm making those very strong claims that we need to be mindful of the law and our international obligations towards children's rights in these settings.' In response to questions about the lawfulness of its isolation practices, a spokesperson for the Department of Human Services said isolation is 'considered an acute response to a risk presented by an individual'. 'This may be for example, a proactive response to ensure the safety of one young person from another,' the spokesperson said in a statement. 'Isolation also includes when a young person requests to be in their room, for example if they are unwell and want to sleep. 'Staff must adhere to operational procedures in line with the Regulations when using isolation at Kurlana Tapa, including approval processes, record-keeping and review requirements." The spokesperson added that staff must also 'ensure that young people subject to isolation have access to their rights' under the Charter of Rights for Youths Detained in Training Centres. 'These requirements are reflected in staff training and supervision.' Ms Reid's report makes three recommendations, which include amending legislation to provide 'robust guidance' on the use of isolation as well as greater investment in staff training and IT systems. Ms Cook said the government would respond 'as quickly as we can' to the recommendations, adding that some suggestions were already in train. 'We're very confident that we've already addressed quite a large percentage of those pieces of work that need to go towards fulfilling the recommendations,' she said. 'In terms of making sure that the policy meet the practice, the practice is being delivered as it should be, and children are at the centre of that.'
News.com.au
43 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Bruce Lehrmann returns to court to fight damning rape findings
Bruce Lehrmann will return to a Sydney court on Wednesday in an effort to overturn his blockbuster defamation suit loss to Lisa Wilkinson and Network 10, and the damning findings made by a Federal Court judge. In a landmark judgment, Justice Michael Lee in April last year dismissed his multi-million dollar lawsuit against the network and its former star journalist over its reporting of Brittany Higgins' rape allegations on The Project. Justice Lee found – on the civil standard of the balance of probabilities – that Lehrmann had raped his then colleague inside Parliament House in March 2019 after a night out drinking in Canberra. Lehrmann is now seeking to have the findings overturned on appeal, with a three-day hearing before the Full Court of the Federal Court beginning on Wednesday morning. The appeal hearing will be presided over by Justices Michael Wigney, Justice Craig Colvin and Justice Wendy Abraham. 'Procedural fairness' Justice Lee found: 'it is more likely than not' that Lehrmann was 'so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Ms Higgins' consent, and hence went ahead with sexual intercourse without caring whether she consented.' In commenting on Lehrmann's decision to sue after criminal proceedings against him were withdrawn, Justice Lee said: 'Having escaped the lions' den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.' Lehrmann's legal team, headed by solicitor Zali Burrows, has claimed that Lehrmann was denied procedural fairness, because Justice Lee's findings were different to the case put forward by Ten and Wilkinson at trial. Lehrmann has maintained his innocence and claimed that he had no sexual contact with Higgins inside the office of their then-boss Senator Linda Reynolds. On his version of events, after entering Reynolds' office, he went to the left and she went to the right, and he did not see her again that night. In her evidence given to the court during the trial in late 2023, Ms Higgins said she told Mr Lehrmann 'no on a loop', that she couldn't scream and that she felt 'waterlogged and heavy'. Justice Lee found that he was not satisfied that Ms Higgins said 'no on a loop' and it was more likely than not 'that she was passive … during the entirety of the sexual act.' Lehrmann argues there are inconsistencies between Justice Lee's findings and the case pleaded by Ten and Wilkinson. 'Consent' Lehrmann's legal team argued that while he was on the witness stand, he should have been questioned further about whether he was reckless about consent. But that argument has been slammed by Wilkinson's legal team which described it as 'entirely misconceived'. In their written submissions to the court, they said that during the trial, Lehrmann was probed by Ten's barrister Dr Matt Collins about whether Ms Higgins had consented to sex. 'Did Ms Higgins at any time consent,' Dr Collins asked at the time. 'I didn't get consent because I didn't have sexual intercourse with her,' Lehrmann said. Ms Wilkinson's lawyers say in their submission: 'At trial Mr Lehrmann's lawyers were of the view that it was unfair to ask him about consent because he had denied sexual intercourse. 'They now apparently take the view that it was unfair to him to not have asked him specific questions about consent.' They say it is 'difficult to see' how he was 'denied natural justice or procedural fairness' because he was not questioned further. 'Given his emphatic denials of sexual intercourse or any similar intimate interaction whatsoever, there was no lack of fairness in not putting to Mr Lehrmann that he was reckless to Ms Higgins' consent when he had had sexual intercourse with her,' the submissions say. Lehrmann faced trial in the ACT Supreme Court in 2022 after pleading not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent. The trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the charge and plans for a retrial due to concerns about Ms Higgins' welfare.
ABC News
43 minutes ago
- ABC News
Donald Trump rules out sending US troops to Ukraine as its allies consider security guarantees
US President Donald Trump has ruled out sending American ground troops into Ukraine, as the war-torn nation's allies build a "reassurance force" that could be deployed under a possible peace agreement. Monday's White House peace talks have triggered a flurry of further meetings about how to give security guarantees to Ukraine under any prospective deal with Russia. Leaders from "coalition of the willing" nations — which include Australia — held a virtual meeting and would "prepare for the deployment of a reassurance force if the hostilities ended", the office of British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said. They were also considering further sanctions on Russia, his office said. NATO military leaders are expected to meet on Wednesday. Mr Trump was meanwhile asked on Fox News about "assurances" that there "won't be American boots on the ground defending that border". He said: "Well, you have my assurance, and I'm the president." But he suggested the US could provide support from the air. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later said that was an "option and a possibility". "I won't, certainly, rule out anything as far as military options that the president has at his disposal," she said. US officials were also working to set up a bilateral meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin "as soon as possible", Ms Leavitt said. It followed a phone conversation between the US and Russian presidents on Monday, after which Mr Trump said he had begun arranging the meeting. On Tuesday, he said he told Mr Putin: "We're going to set up a meeting with President Zelenskyy, and you and he will meet, and then after that meeting if everything works out OK, I'll meet and we'll wrap it up." But Mr Putin is yet to publicly commit to the bilateral meeting, and the Kremlin only said he and Mr Trump discussed "the prospect of exploring opportunities for drawing higher-ranking officials" into direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations. Mr Trump told Fox News: "I hope President Putin is going to be good — if he's not, it's going to be a rough situation. "And I hope that Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility also." After the meeting of Ukraine's allies, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia welcomed the "ongoing efforts towards achieving a just and enduring peace, including yesterday's discussions with Washington". ABC/wires
