Refugee groups say the latest move to deal with growing tide of asylum seekers is a further erosion of basic human rights. There are now too many people to be sent offshore, so many will now be released into the community on the so called bridging visas, which won't allow them to work.

 

A former union official at the central of AWU fraud scandal says he'll speak to police in return for immunity from prosecution. Ralph Blewitt has returned from Malaysia to reveal what he knows about the misuse of the union slush fund which Julia Gillard help to create when she was a lawyer in the 1990s. He says the prime minister still has a lot of questions to answer.

 

Police are investigating two drive-by shootings in Sydney overnight. A man was shot in the leg several times while sitting in a car in Guildford's west. An hour later, a shot was fired into a house in Bella Vista.

 

And a deal to end Tasmania's long running forestry dispute may be announced today. It's understood environmental and industry groups have agreed to protect 560,000 hectares of forest from logging. Tasmania's cabinet is expected to sign the agreement this morning before presenting it to parliament on the last sitting day of the year.