Labor ‘worked through all the policy issues’ on immigration, Burke says
Caitlin Cassidy
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has defended the time Labor has taken to release its immigration plan and laid blame with the Coalition, who he believed “might have more of an appetite for legislation”.
Burke appeared on ABC’s 7.30 program after releasing the plan was released on Thursday, and was asked “what took you so long” given he was meant to speak at the National Press Club six weeks ago.
He said the Labor party had spent time “working through all the policy issues”, and navigating the visa system was complex.
Every part of the economy is affected by immigration these days for Australia, and so … dealing with the challenges we’ve got with housing supply, which is not immigration’s fault, but immigration needs to be part of the answer, to do that in a way that has the softest landing for the economy is something you’ve got to get right.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, told 7.30 that the Coalition had “laid out what we needed as preconditions in order to be able to work with the government and they couldn’t meet the preconditions”.
The numbers are too high and what we’ve seen from the government today is no cut to the numbers … We are a great immigrant nation. Make no mistake about it. But immigration needs to be capped based on the housing supply, the infrastructure, the services we have, and that has not been the case in recent years.
Key events
Albanese to meet Apple boss after social media reform
Anthony Albanese will today fly to the United States to visit the Apple headquarters in California just weeks after the government released sweeping reform that was designed to keep children safe online.
The prime minister will meet with meet with Tim Cook, Apple’s executive chairman of the board of directors, to discuss Apple’s new parental controls for children – which the government characterised as “in part inspired by Australia’s groundbreaking reform”.
It comes after Labor introduced its digital duty of care reform, including new laws that require platforms to protect children from online harms including content that glorifies eating disorders, misogyny, crime or stunts, and abuse or bullying.
In a statement, Albanese said he was “proud that Australia is setting the world standard for digital safety”.
Ben Doherty
Britain’s Aukus chief says ‘our adversaries hate’ it
One of the markers of the success of the Aukus nuclear submarine deal is how much it is opposed by potential adversaries, Britain’s Aukus chief has told a Washington DC thinktank.
Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the UK prime minister’s special representative on Aukus, told an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “our adversaries hate Aukus”.
They really hate it. And in a sense, the way in which you can judge whether or not it is doing the things that you want it to do is how much people who don’t necessarily share our value systems and our objectives are objecting to it.
Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Greg Moriarty – secretary of the defence department when the Aukus deal was struck in 2021 – concurred, saying China had “made clear it’s very unhappy with Aukus”.
It believes that – or it’s said as much, I’m not sure if it believes it – that it’s destabilising the region. I think when you look at the way in which China is putting additional nuclear-powered submarines, additional nuclear armed submarines, it’s building its submarine capability and its nuclear missile capability at such a pace, these Australian boats are not destabilising the region. We are seeking to balance in the region and … the growth of PLA nuclear powered submarine capabilities is very profound.
Labor ‘worked through all the policy issues’ on immigration, Burke says
Caitlin Cassidy
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has defended the time Labor has taken to release its immigration plan and laid blame with the Coalition, who he believed “might have more of an appetite for legislation”.
Burke appeared on ABC’s 7.30 program after releasing the plan was released on Thursday, and was asked “what took you so long” given he was meant to speak at the National Press Club six weeks ago.
He said the Labor party had spent time “working through all the policy issues”, and navigating the visa system was complex.
Every part of the economy is affected by immigration these days for Australia, and so … dealing with the challenges we’ve got with housing supply, which is not immigration’s fault, but immigration needs to be part of the answer, to do that in a way that has the softest landing for the economy is something you’ve got to get right.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, told 7.30 that the Coalition had “laid out what we needed as preconditions in order to be able to work with the government and they couldn’t meet the preconditions”.
The numbers are too high and what we’ve seen from the government today is no cut to the numbers … We are a great immigrant nation. Make no mistake about it. But immigration needs to be capped based on the housing supply, the infrastructure, the services we have, and that has not been the case in recent years.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Stephanie Convery with the main action.
The woman believed to be the mother of a newborn baby found dead in a bin in Sydney last month has been arrested. More coming up.
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