ABC shift: Trioli to AM; Eastley to News 24. ABC News Breakfast co-host and former Fairfax journalist Virginia Trioli will replace longtime presenter Tony Eastley as the host of ABC radio’s current affairs program AM this year. Eastley, who has hosted AM for 10 years, is moving to a senior presenter role on News 24. Trioli, formerly of The Age and ABC 702 Sydney, will return to the harbour city from Melbourne. AM, which airs on Radio National and almost 60 local stations weekday mornings, has a large audience and is considered one of the ABC’s most important radio programs. The ABC has not yet announced who will share the News Breakfast couch with Trioli’s current co-host Michael Rowland.
Morrison’s epic task. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has told News Corp he will personally cancel the visas of foreign-born “undesirable residents” (shorthand for those who do not comply with Australian laws). But that’s not the full story. Immigration ministers have always had the power to either grant or cancel visas, and these decisions are exempt from a review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. One immigration lawyer who spoke to Crikey said the denial of visas based on a person’s character — for example, if he or she poses a risk to society — is quite common.
The lawyer also said there were concerns about how Morrison would handle such a large workload, as previous ministers generally avoid becoming involved in visa cancellations except in exceptional circumstances. Instead, cases are usually referred to an official from the Department of Immigration. Is Morrison prepared to wade through the piles of documentation relevant to each individual case, or simply accept the recommendations of his department? And if it’s the latter, is the decision really going to be his? — Broede Carmody
Front page of the day. No one expects subtlety from Sydney’s rambunctious Daily Telegraph. But the paper caught Crikey‘s eye this morning with its headline “Fresh face of jihad death”. The online version was hardly less dramatic: “Aussie beauty killed in Syrian hellhole had a secret jihadi life.” But what evidence is there that devout Sydney woman Amira Karroum, who was killed with her husband in Aleppo last Thursday, had a secret “jihad life”? Jihad can mean a personal religious struggle, but usually refers to a holy war waged on behalf of Islam. As Karroum’s relatives told the Telegraph, it’s a mystery how and why she came to be in Syria. The circumstances of her death are also unclear. The Tele‘s reporting may eventually be vindicated but the paper has yet to back up its bold headlines with evidence …
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