AUSTRALIA – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

I’ll cut more foreign students: Dutton

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Original article by Rhiannon Down
The Australian – Page: 5 : 20-Nov-24

The Coalition is under scrutiny for joining forces with the Greens to block legislation to cap new international student numbers from 2025. Education Minister Jason Clare says Opposition leader Peter Dutton has no credibility with regard to immigration, given that he stated in his budget reply speech in May that a Coalition government would introduce a cap on international students. Dutton says the Coalition will pursue a more aggressive reduction in international students than Labor. Meanwhile, former bureaucrat Abul Rizvi says the Coalition’s policy of reducing net overseas migration to 160,000 in 2025-26 would not be possible without a big increase in the unemployment rate.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EDUCATION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Xi, PM tout best relations in decade

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Original article by Geoff Chambers
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 20-Nov-24

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. The private meeting coincided with the 10th anniversary of Xi’s historic speech to federal parliament in Canberra. Xi told Albanese that there has been a ‘turnaround’ in relations between the two nations over the last decade, and expressed hope that this will continue. Albanese in turn said that the entire Indo-Pacific region will benefit from the prosperity arising from peace, security and stability. Albanese also indicated that he raised a number of issues that matter to Australia, including Taiwan, human rights, cyber security and the ongoing detention of Yang Hengjun in China.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, GROUP OF TWENTY (G-20)

‘Turnaround’: Xi talks up China ties in G20 talks with Albanese

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Original article by David Crowe
The Age – Page: Online : 19-Nov-24

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping have held talks at Xi’s hotel in Rio de Janeiro, ahead of the G20 Summit that is being held in the Brazilian city. Xi noted that there had been "twists and turns" in the relationship between China and Australia over the last decade, but that there had been a "turnaround" in recent times. Both he and Albanese noted that their meeting was held 10 years to the day that their two countries had signed a comprehensive strategic partnership, when Tony Abbott was prime minister and Xi had visited Australia and had addressed federal parliament.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, GROUP OF TWENTY (G-20)

Roy Morgan Poll: Coalition maintains a narrow two-party preferred lead over Labor for the third straight week

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 19-Nov-24

If a Federal Election were held now the result would be ‘too close to call’ with the Coalition 51% (up 0.5%) ahead of the ALP 49% (down 0.5%) on a two-party preferred basis, the latest Roy Morgan survey finds. The close result means either the ALP or Coalition would require the support of minor parties and independents to form government. The Coalition increased its primary vote to 39% (up 1.5%) and is now 10% in front of the ALP on 29% (down 1.5%) – the largest primary vote lead since July. The rise in support for the Coalition comes in the first full week of interviewing conducted entirely after Donald Trump’s victory in the Presidential Election.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, MORGAN POLL, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Inflate this: PM’s public service splurge costs taxpayers extra $5bn

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Original article by Simon Benson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 13-Nov-24

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that 26,100 permanent positions have been added to the federal public service since Labor took office in May 2022. The annual public sector wages bill has risen from $32.5bn in June 2022 to more than $37bn, and the federal public sector workforce has risen to 365,400. Meanwhile, the total cost of the public service across Australia’s three tiers of government is now almost $250bn a year. Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher contends that the federal government has been rebuilding the Australian Public Service after a decade of neglect under the Coalition. However, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor says Labor is using the public sector to prop up the jobs market and GDP.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Labor fails to rein in migration

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Original article by Julie Hare, Gus McCubbing
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 10 : 13-Nov-24

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that net overseas migration totalled 391,850 people in the first nine months of 2024. This is the highest level ever recorded for the first three quarters of a calendar year, eclipsing the record of 390,580 that was set in 2023. Monthly arrivals in the first quarter of 2024-25 averaged 41,823; the Institute of Public Affairs has estimated that this will need to fall to just 21,670 if the federal government’s net migration target of 260,000 for the current financial year is to be achieved. Meanwhile, Department of Home Affairs data shows that Immigration Minister Tony Burke did not cancel any visas on character grounds during his first month in the portfolio.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS

PM to quote Turnbull in Trump tariff talks

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 13-Nov-24

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will travel to Peru on Wednesday to attend the APEC leaders’ summit, ahead of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week. However, he has rejected the Coalition’s push to have a stopover in the US to meet with president-elect Donald Trump, amid concerns that Australia will be directly impacted by his proposed tariff of up to 20 per cent on all non-China imports. Albanese has indicated that he will use similar arguments in tariff talks with Trump as those of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017; the latter’s argument that Australia was one of the few nations that had a trade surplus with the US helped convince Trump to shelve plans to impose punitive tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION, GROUP OF TWENTY (G-20), UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Spare us the scare campaigns, says Watt

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: Online : 6-Nov-24

The CFMEU’s ­national secretary Zach Smith says the approvals process for enterprise agreements has become a "farce". He alleges that the Fair Work Commission is taking up to three months to approve new pay deals for workers in the CFMEU’s construction division in the wake of the move to place it in administration. Meanwhile, Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has downplayed fears about the impact of the federal government’s multi-employer bargaining laws on the mining sector. He notes that the FWC has authorised just 13 single-interest multi-employer bargaining processes since mid-2023, and none of them have covered mine production workers.

CORPORATES
CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY AND MARITIME EMPLOYEES UNION, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS

Resist your urge to splurge, ALP told

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Original article by Jack Quail
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 6-Nov-24

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to leave the cash rate unchanged at 4.35 per cent on Tuesday had been widely expected. The RBA remains focused primarily on underlying inflation, which governor Michele Bullock says is still too high for the central bank to consider reducing the cash rate. Underlying inflation was 3.5 per cent in the year to September, and Bullock notes that temporary electricity rebates contributed to the headline inflation rate falling to 2.8 per cent. Bullock has also emphasised the need for Treasurer Jim Chalmers to avoid any spending measures that may fuel inflation ahead of the federal election.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Scandalous Covid betrayal of trust

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Original article by Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 30-Oct-24

An independent panel’s review of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has made 26 recommendations; it concluded that 19 of them should be prioritised over the next 12-18 months. The inquiry found that the public generally supported Covid measures such as lockdowns at the onset of the pandemic, but "draconian" measures were not justified after the initial wave and merely reduced trust in governments. The report noted that the nation is now less prepared for a future public health emergency because the health system has not recovered from the pandemic and Australians are now unlikely to comply with onerous restrictions in the wake of Covid.

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