Australia news LIVE: Australia’s net migration will be halved; Borrowing costs are the fastest-growing area of government spending

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8.40am

Tehan wants details of government’s migration strategy

By Olivia Ireland

Shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan wants to see the details of the government’s migration strategy before supporting it as he criticised Labor for “dropping the ball”.

Speaking on Sky News Australia, Tehan said the forecast intake of 510,000 migrants will continue to put strain on housing and congestion issues.

The opposition’s immigration and citizenship spokesman Dan Tehan.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We’ve always supported and strongly supported when we’re in government, targeted migration to our regions because that’s building a better Australia, that’s not building Labor’s big Australia,” he said.

“We want to see the details … the overall figure is still a record figure and what we’re seeing is the majority of those people are going to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and they’re leading to all these congestion issues and these housing prices issues, these rental issues, the fact you can’t see the GP, that’s what [the government has] got to try and address.”

8.25am

Migration strategy will confront reliance on low-skilled workers

By Olivia Ireland

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says the migration strategy will confront “head on” the reliance some industries have on low-skilled migrant workers due to a worker shortage.

“As Australians we’ve always pretended that we don’t have lower wage migrant labour in our country, and you just look around, and it’s not true,” she said.

O’Neil said the aged care industry was an example of how migrant workers will be a major part of helping the sector to stay afloat.

“We’ve got the first of the baby boomers entering aged care, we’re going to need many more workers and it is absolutely the case that migrants are going to be a core part of that workforce,” she said.

“At the moment there is no proper-regulated pathway for those workers to come in and have their rights protected and have a good experience of working in Australia, so we’re running a number of pilots and experiments to see how we can make that pathway better.”

8.09am

‘Entirely possible’ to grant high-skilled visas in seven days, O’Neil says

By Olivia Ireland

Returning to Clare O’Neil, who says the government’s goal to attract high-skilled workers through a new skilled specialist pathway which would fast-track applications in seven days is entirely possible.

Speaking on ABC radio, O’Neil expressed her confidence in being able to fast-track visa applications for skilled workers from overseas.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says it will be possible to speed up visa applications for high-skilled workers.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We want scientists and doctors and brilliant people, cybersecurity specialists to come here. They will help lift the productivity of everyone around them, that will help grow businesses and create jobs,” she said.

Today it is virtually impossible to get those people into the country … it can take up to a year for those people to get a visa to come here because they have to go through a special system that the immigration minister must personally sign off on. Now, that’s just absolutely crazy.

We’re in a global race for talent and we’re not going to win it unless we do basic things like give people fast answers on their applications.”

7.53am

Wayne Swan says ‘renewal is a good thing’ after Palaszczuk resigns

By Caroline Schelle

Turning to the Australian Labor Party’s national president Wayne Swan, who said, “renewal is a good thing” after Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced her resignation.

An emotional Palaszczuk made the announcement yesterday morning after updating the media about the impending arrival of Tropical Cyclone Jasper – potentially her 63rd Queensland natural disaster as premier.

ALP national president Wayne Swan.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Speaking on Nine’s Today program, the former federal treasurer was asked whether Palaszczuk was pushed from the role.

Here’s what he said:

Renewal is a good thing.

I think she realised she’s been leader since 2012. She’s had three very successful election campaigns.

She has a big policy agenda for the future, clean energy, free kindy, satellite hospitals. I think she realised it was the responsible thing to do to have a change over now, 12 months out from the next election.

Swan said Palaszczuk made the decision in her own interests, but “most importantly in Queensland’s interests”.

“You don’t get people serving as premier for four or five terms any more. You might have 20 or 30 years ago. It’s a gruelling job. She’s given it her all. And I think she thought long and hard about it and took that decision on her own terms.”

7.40am

Australia’s current migration program not delivering: O’Neil

By Olivia Ireland

Staying with Clare O’Neil, who says Australia’s current migration program is not delivering for the country, as the government’s latest strategy is set to halve the annual intake from a record high of 510,000 by imposing tougher tests on overseas students and turning away workers with low skills.

Speaking on ABC’s AM, the home affairs minister said the new strategy will be about reducing exploitation and making it stricter on who can be granted a visa.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says the new migration strategy will be about reducing exploitation.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We’re not just looking at students, the overall mix of our migration program … is not delivering for the country. And by that I mean it’s really hard to get those high-skilled workers that we desperately need here, but we’ve made it much too easy for people to use side door and backdoor entries into our workforce and the primary way that is happening at the moment is through international education,” O’Neil said.

“We are lifting standards for international students and ensuring that they are actually here to study and not to work. This is critical to restoring integrity and trust in the system.”

7.32am

O’Neil says migration numbers need to go ‘back to normal’

By Caroline Schelle

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has been speaking about the government’s plans to halve migration numbers.

The government plans to impose tougher tests on overseas students and turn away workers with low skills as part of the plan.

Here’s what O’Neil told ABC’s Radio National:

The migration strategy that the government is releasing today has a primary goal of reducing our migration numbers back to normal, and it’s really important that we do that as quickly as possible because we can only run this successful migration program for our country when we’ve got widespread community support.

And we won’t have that if the numbers remain at these unsustainable levels.

We are looking to return that program back to its normal size by next year.”

7.23am

Insurers warn of unaffordable premiums, home risks

By Millie Muroi

Australia’s insurance giants are warning premium costs will spiral beyond the reach of more households unless some homes are relocated from high-risk areas and planning laws are improved to better consider natural disasters.

Insurance Australia Group (IAG), Suncorp and QBE have put the spotlight on rising premiums and point to locations like Wilberforce, Emu Plains and Warwick Farm in Sydney’s basin where planning controls fail to deal with unacceptable residual flood risk.

Insurers say land-planning regulations must properly account for natural disaster risks to avoid putting houses in harm’s way.Credit: Getty

The House of Representatives committee inquiry into insurers’ responses to last year’s east-coast flooding disaster – the most expensive insurance event in the nation’s history with $7.4 billion in claims – received 17 submissions including from the nation’s biggest insurers.

Speaking ahead of an IAG land-planning report to be released on Monday, the insurer’s land planning hazards and regulatory manager Andrew Dyer said houses were being approved in areas under the current planning framework where natural disaster risk levels were unacceptably high.

Here’s the full story.

7.05am

The government’s budget has the same problem as yours – interest rates

By Rachel Clun

Higher interest rates are hitting the federal budget as well as household spending, and are forecast to cost the government an extra $80 billion over 11 years in larger interest repayments on debt bills.

Borrowing costs will overtake the NDIS as the fastest-growing area of federal government spending, according to figures from the mid-year budget update, even as gross Commonwealth debt is projected to be lower than forecast in the May budget.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says higher interest rates mean government debt is more expensive to service.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The government has been under pressure to do more in Wednesday’s update to put downward pressure on inflation and also help struggling Australians as cost-of-living pressures continue to strain household budgets.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who has repeatedly said the budget update will not contain major new spending initiatives, said there were still major pressures on the government’s finances, including higher interest rates.

Students at centre of push to curb migrant blowout

By David Crowe

Returning to Australia, the country’s net migration will be halved within two years in a dramatic move to slash the annual intake from a record high of 510,000.

The new migration strategy will demand students pass a stronger English-language test and will require them to prove they are genuine students before they enter the country, while making it harder for them to stay if they do not find jobs that help fix the nation’s skills shortages.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil will unveil Labor’s strategy to bring down the immigration level.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The government remains open to more controversial measures, such as a cap on student numbers or higher fees on their visa applications, if the sweeping new plan does not cut the net migration intake to 250,000 by the year to June 2025.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil will outline the changes today with a pledge to cut the intake to more sustainable levels and act against migrant exploitation without putting at risk the ability to attract workers for jobs that need to be filled, such as in hospitals and aged care.

Continue reading about the changes here.

6.36am

Heavy fighting across Gaza amid renewed US military and diplomatic support

Heavy fighting raged across Gaza overnight, including in the devastated north, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the US blocked the latest international push for a ceasefire and rushed more munitions to its close ally.

Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a permanent ceasefire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians. About 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee.

Palestinians injured in an Israeli airstrike arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis.Credit: Getty

The United States has lent vital support to the offensive by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting and by pushing through an emergency sale of more than $US100 million ($152 million) worth of tank ammunition to Israel.

The US has pledged unwavering support for Israel’s goal of crushing Hamas’ military and governing abilities, and returning all the hostages captured in the October 7 attack that triggered the war.

Read the full story here, from AP.

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