Australia news LIVE: Labor will fast-track laws after High Court detainee ruling; IKEA will stop selling engineered stone

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• 6.51amLabor fast-tracks new laws to deal with High Court ruling on detainees
• 6.36amBiden, Xi shake hands at APEC in bid to ease tensions
• 6.21amThis morning’s headlines at a glance

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Labor fast-tracks new laws to deal with High Court ruling on detainees

Back in Australia, the Albanese government will introduce new laws today to deal with a landmark High Court ruling that it was illegal to hold people in immigration detention indefinitely.

In a sign of how the federal government is scrambling to pull together its legislative response to the ruling, the opposition – which has offered bipartisan support for legal changes – will only be briefed at 7.15am on today about the proposed laws before parliament resumes at 9am.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during question time in Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Late on Wednesday, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said in a statement that “the government will introduce and seek to pass this legislation tomorrow to further respond to the High Court’s decision”.

The pair said the government had been working through a legal response well before the decision of the High Court and “the full implications will not be clear until the High Court has provided written reasons for their judgement, which means further legislation may be required”.

Here’s the full story. 

Biden, Xi shake hands at APEC in bid to ease tensions

US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping opened their much-anticipated summit with a handshake, kicking off their first meeting in more than a year.

The carefully choreographed meeting was held south of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco on the sweeping grounds of the Filoli estate on the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz mountains.

President Joe Biden greets President Xi Jinping in California.Credit: AP

Leaders are expected to finalise the resumption of military-to-military communication in hopes of avoiding confrontations in the Pacific, as well as a comprehensive Chinese law enforcement effort to crack down on fentanyl manufacturing and distribution networks.

The leaders greeted each other on a red carpet unfurled outside the secluded century-old Georgian manor nestled on the southern end of the Crystal Springs Reservoir.

Their talks are also expected to include discussion of artificial intelligence, the status of Taiwan, and conflicts involving Ukraine and Israel. Chinese officials are likely to seek the rollback of export controls, tariffs and restrictions on investment in the US.

Bloomberg

This morning’s headlines at a glance

Good morning, and thanks for joining me today.

It’s Thursday, November 16. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.

Here’s what you need to know before we get started:

• A last-ditch campaign to save the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been launched by Tanya Plibersek, who wants a deal with the Greens or Coalition.
• A review of the federal government’s infrastructure pipeline says up to one in 10 needs to be axed in favour of more important projects.
• The government also rejected a Coalition proposal to ban the Nazi salute, in a rare split of federal parliament’s powerful security and intelligence committee.
• IKEA has followed Bunnings’ decision to stop selling engineered stone, with its Australian chief executive announcing it will phase out the harmful product.
• One-off factors and a tight jobs market have pushed annual wages growth to 4 per cent, but experts believe this may be as good as it gets for most Australians.
• The government warned Australia’s reputation will be put at risk if certain secret information is handed to whistleblower David McBride for his defence.
• Turning overseas, Israeli troops stormed into Gaza’s largest hospital, searching for traces of Hamas inside and beneath the facility.
• Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that their government’s contentious plan to send some asylum seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda is illegal.

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