Your afternoon Briefing: ‘Too far’: High Court blow to free speech

Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories.

Good afternoon, readers. Here’s what made news this Wednesday. A constitutional expert has warned the High Court may have gone ‘too far’ when it upheld a decision to sack a public servant and a polar blast due to hit the country tomorrow has triggered an extreme weather warning.

Michaela Banerji leaves the High Court in tears after losing a landmark free speech case.ABC News: Michael Black

‘Too far’: High Court blow to free speech

Constitutional expert Anne Twomey has warned the High Court may have gone “too far” when it upheld a decision to sack a public servant after she criticised the government’s immigration policy from an anonymous social media account.

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Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and former Prime Minister Paul Keating at the Remembrance Day service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice that ended the First World War, one hundred years ago on 11 November 1918. Thousands turned out to pay their respects at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.Almost 62,000 Australians died fighting for our freedom and in service of our nation. Picture Gary Ramage

Election loss opens a rift between Keating and Shorten

Backers of Bill Shorten have rejected Paul Keating’s analysis that Labor lost the election because it lost the middle class, saying they were “surprised and disappointed” that the former prime minister had made the claim after backing Mr Shorten so strongly during the campaign.

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The indicator board at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is seen in Sydney, Tuesday, July 30, 2019. The Australian share market has opened higher, with every sector joining an early rally, as the ASX200 broke through its intra-day all-time high set in November 2007, just before the global financial crisis. (AAP Image/Paul Braven) NO ARCHIVING

Australian stocks rebound after two-day rout

The sharemarket finished firmly higher, regaining ground after losing $86bn in two days over trade tensions.

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