PM

For the first time in nearly 15 years, Australian-made satellites are set to be launched into space in the coming days. Three nano-satellites, built by universities across Australia, are part of a global project collecting climate data from the edge of the earth's atmosphere. The highly anticipated launch comes as the Australian Space Industry Association releases a white paper calling for an urgent government commitment to a permanent national space program.

The Disability Discrimination Commissioner says people with a disability are still not equal before the law, three years on from a damning Human Rights Commission Report. Alistair McEwin called for the state and federal governments to urgently address the issue, at a Griffith University Human Rights forum today. Mr McEwin says there has been little progress since the Commission's 2014 Equal Before the Law Report, which found that discrimination against people with a disability is widespread in Australia's justice system.

The political attack turned personal in Canberra today, with both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader accusing one another of letting down workers. Labor says Malcolm Turnbull is waving through changes to Sunday penalty rates, ignoring the plight of thousands of workers on low wages. While the PM continued his attacks on Bill Shorten, accusing him in Question Time of 'taking backhanders' from businesses and in exchange for workers' entitlements.

Western Australia's new Premier Mark McGowan convened his first cabinet meeting today. Chief among his challenges will be plugging the state's gaping revenue hole. The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has reiterated there'll be no federal lifeline in the form of GST formula changes until 2019 at the earliest. He's also challenged Mr McGowan to support his plan in the face of expected opposition from other Labor leaders.

The Northern Territory youth detention royal commission has heard some of its most explosive evidence yet, with a guard admitting he filmed detainees eating faeces, urinating and being sworn at. Former guards from the Don Dale youth detention centre in Darwin are giving evidence at public hearings this week. The commissioners have also been told detainees were taken to a toilet area to fight.

Democracy is being tested in Timor Leste with hundreds-of-thousands of Timorese having their say about who should be their next President. A Professor Of International Politics at Deakin University, Damien Kingsbury, is monitoring the situation on the ground.

His friends and parliamentary colleagues know him as 'Wacka', a salt of the earth shearer turned Senator for New South Wales. But bank bosses know Nationals party MP John Williams as the tenacious and wily politician, who's made a name for himself pursuing them for bad bank behaviour. The Senator will need to muster all that tenacity and even more to deal with a personal health condition that tonight, he's going public with. He says he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but he has the support of his colleagues and is confident he can see out the next few years in Parliament.

Lawyers representing residents in a Queensland Darling Downs town say they have the final clearance to commence a class action against the Department of Defence. About 450 Oakey residents are demanding financial compensation for their dwindling property prices, because of contaminated groundwater emanating from the defence base next to the town. But some residents are steering clear of the action, and they say repeated publicity about the contamination is causing reputational damage to the town.

There's been mounting speculation this week that we may be about to see a significant change to superannuation policy. Coalition backbenchers have been calling for the Government to allow first home buyers to access their superannuation to help fund a deposit for a house. So does the idea stack up?

At the child sexual abuse Royal Commission, the Anglican Church has admitted its dioceses have failed to unite behind national child protection standards. The Bishop of Newcastle Greg Thompson blames tribalism in the church. The Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, gave evidence the church is committed to national child protection standards, but there's been disagreement over their scope. New data commissioned by the inquiry shows that between 1980-2015, the church received 1082 allegations of abuse.