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Australia and Vietnam have agreed to strengthen cooperation across education, trade and innovation, to enhance the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, His Excellency Mr To Lam issued a Joint Statement on Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Australia and Vietnam on priorities including economic engagement, climate, energy and science.

The two leaders also issued a Joint Statement on Economic Resilience Cooperation and a Joint Statement on Science, Research and Innovation.

The agreements announced today will strengthen economic ties and create new opportunities for businesses in both countries.

Trade Ministers signed an agreement to deepen cooperation in the digital economy, including supporting cross-border trade to promote e-commerce and create opportunities for Australian businesses in digital health and banking services.

The visit also saw Vietjet announce yesterday direct flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Western Sydney International Airport.

Flights will begin in January 2027, operating twice a week before increasing to three services a week from March.

Australia and Vietnam also agreed to continue to strengthen existing cooperation on agriculture and sustainable development, including biosecurity, food safety and aquaculture.

Australia secured agreement for the recommencement of market access for Australian game meat, including kangaroo meat.

Both countries are working toward closer health cooperation, which will see Australia supporting medical research, pandemic preparedness, and rural and remote healthcare in Vietnam.

Education remains one of the strongest links between Australia and Vietnam.

A new Memorandum of Understanding on vocational education and training will support Australian providers to deliver industry-focused training in Vietnam.

Australia also welcomed Vietnam’s approval of an investment licence for RMIT University, allowing it to establish a new campus in Hanoi.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

“I am very pleased to welcome General Secretary and President To Lam to Australia.

“Vietnam is one of Australia’s closest partners in our region and our relationship continues to go from strength to strength.

“Today’s agreements will make it easier to do business, create new opportunities for trade and investment, strengthen education and research links, and bring our countries even closer together.

“More flights, more trade and stronger education links are good for Australian jobs, Australian businesses and our economy.”

Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong:

“Our economic partnership with Vietnam contributes not only to the prosperity of our two countries, but to a stronger and more resilient region.

“By deepening trade and investment links, we are helping build shared prosperity in an increasingly uncertain world.”

Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell:

“The Albanese Labor Government is committed to deepening our engagement with Vietnam by delivering practical outcomes for our people, our businesses and our region. 

“Vietnam is experiencing rapid economic growth with an expanding middle class, and we’re ensuring Australia’s world class producers and exporters are best placed to meet the country’s growing demand.

“The new flights from Vietnam to Western Sydney are a huge win for tourists and businesses who will now have greater choice and increased opportunities between  our two nations.”

the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King:

“Vietjet’s flights into Western Sydney International Airport will be a real boost for tourism and business in Sydney’s west, as well as for Western Sydney families looking for a holiday escape.

“Welcoming our fifth airline is an exciting update, as we work towards passenger flights commencing on Sunday the 25th of October.”

Minister for Education Jason Clare:

“Education is one of the most important bridges between Australia and Vietnam.

“It’s not just about Vietnamese students studying in Australia, it’s also about Australian universities like RMIT taking the best of Australian education to Vietnam.

“These connections build the skills our countries need and the friendships that bring us closer together.”

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Julie Collins:

“Australia is a trusted and reliable supplier of agricultural, fisheries and forestry products to Vietnam because of our well-earned reputation for providing high quality, safe and sustainably produced goods.

“This agreement demonstrates the strength of our relationship with Vietnam, and it is wonderful to see cooperation like this also result in progress on long-standing market-access requests that will expand opportunities for Australian farmers and producers to showcase our world-class products on the international stage.

“Our Government will continue working tirelessly to expand opportunities for our farmers and producers.”

Australia and Vietnam have agreed to bolster defence and security cooperation to support our shared commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous region.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, His Excellency Mr To Lam issued the Joint Statement on Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Australia and Vietnam, reinforcing cooperation on shared priorities including defence and security.

As part of the visit, the two countries announced new practical measures to strengthen defence and security cooperation.

Australia and Vietnam’s Ministers for Defence agreed to an updated Joint Vision Statement on Defence Cooperation to support closer exchanges, including across maritime security and disaster relief.

Australian and Vietnamese defence forces will work more closely together, including by sharing expertise on search and rescue operations and participating in joint training.

Respective border agencies signed memoranda of understanding for further work together to combat transnational crime, strengthen border protection and enhance maritime cooperation.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

“Australia and Vietnam are close partners and we are both committed to a peaceful, stable and prosperous region.

“These new agreements deliver practical cooperation between our countries and help ensure we can meet the challenges of an increasingly complex strategic environment.”

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles:

“Vietnam is an important defence partner for Australia, and we are committed to deepening cooperation in ways that directly contribute to the stability and security of our region.

“By expanding practical cooperation across areas such as maritime security, search and rescue, disaster relief and training, we are building stronger capabilities and closer ties between our two defence forces.”

Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong:

“Australia and Vietnam are strengthening our defence and security ties as result of the growing strategic trust under our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

“We both share a commitment to a region where countries can make their own decisions, sovereignty is respected, and disputes can be managed peacefully.”

Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke:

“The threats we’re facing today do not stop at national borders. If cyber criminals and organised crime gangs are going to function on a transnational basis, then our response needs to be transnational as well.

“One country alone can’t deal with these growing threats. Strong cooperation with trusted partners is essential to keep our communities safe.”

On the anniversary of their deaths, the Australian Army has formally identified two Australian soldiers who were both killed on 8 August in different wars and on opposite sides of the world.

Private Archibald ‘Blue’ Hanley, 30th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, and Lieutenant Hercules William Crawford, 39th Battalion, Citizens Military Forces, were killed 24 years apart – one during the Battle of Amiens in 1918 and the other during the Kokoda Battle in 1942.

Following extensive investigations, the Australian Army has now confirmed the identities of both previously unknown soldiers buried in France and Papua New Guinea, ensuring they are recognised and remembered by name.

The identifications were made by the Australian Army’s Unrecovered War Casualties team, following detailed investigations in partnership with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Office of Australian War Graves. 

Private Archibald ‘Blue’ Hanley, of the 30th Battalion, was killed in action near Villers-Bretonneux, France, on 8 August 1918. Investigations have now confirmed that an Unknown Australian Soldier buried at Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery is Private Hanley.

Lieutenant Crawford was wounded and went missing near Pirivi on the Kokoda Track on 8 August 1942, and following a two-year investigation, Army concluded that an Unknown Australian Soldier buried at Bomana War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea is Lieutenant Crawford.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has concurred with the findings of both investigations. Replacement headstones bearing the soldiers’ names, ranks and unit details will now be installed in consultation with their families. 

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, the Hon Matt Keogh MP:

“When we say ‘Lest We Forget” at the end of the Ode we re-commit to remembering them in perpetuity. Today we honour two Australian soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our nation and, at long last, can be remembered by name rather than as unknown soldiers. 

“The formal identification of Private Archibald Hanley and Lieutenant Hercules William Crawford reflects our enduring commitment to accounting for Australia’s wartime missing, no matter how much time has passed. 

 “The work of the Australian Army’s Unrecovered War Casualties team, alongside the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Office of Australian War Graves, reflects the care and determination invested in honouring those who served our nation.”

Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Susan Coyle AM, CSC, DSM: 

“More than a century after the First World War and more than 80 years after the battle of Kokoda, we continue to honour our obligation to those who served Australia.”

“The formal identification of Private Archibald Hanley and Lieutenant Hercules William Crawford demonstrates that time does not diminish our determination to account for our missing and ensure their service and sacrifice are properly commemorated.”

“These identifications provide long-awaited answers for their families and ensure both men will be remembered not as unknown soldiers, but by name, rank and unit.”

Australia has helped achieve a major milestone for the region, with all Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) members now connected to undersea telecommunications cables for the first time.

Working alongside Pacific governments and development partners, Australia has helped deliver more than 10,300 kilometres of new undersea cables, ensuring every PIF member is connected to the global cable network.

A more connected Pacific advances our shared interests by strengthening regional resilience, supporting economic development and deepening connections between our countries and peoples.

Australia has committed more than $500 million since 2018 to support undersea cable connectivity across the Pacific and Timor-Leste.

This investment has helped deliver cable projects across nine countries, including primary cable connections for Naoero, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Tarawa in Kiribati, and Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Australia is also working with partners to strengthen the reliability and resilience of telecommunications infrastructure through support for second international cable connections in Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Palau and Solomon Islands.

These investments are being delivered in partnership with Japan, New Zealand, and the United States, as well as Taiwan. They will help connect Pacific governments, businesses, communities and peoples to global networks and digital markets, opening new opportunities for trade, investment, innovation and economic participation.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Penny Wong:

“For the first time, every Pacific Islands Forum member now has access to the digital infrastructure needed to participate fully in the modern economy, backed in with Australian support.

“A more connected Pacific is a more resilient Pacific. This infrastructure strengthens economic growth, supports essential services and will help underpin a more peaceful, stable and prosperous region.”

Minister for Pacific Island Affairs, Pat Conroy MP:

“Faster, more affordable and more reliable digital services will help integrate our economies, making it easier for Pacific peoples and businesses to connect, and investment to flow across the region.

“With new connections comes greater opportunities, better information flows and knowledge sharing, supporting Pacific Island countries to fully participate in the global economy.”

Today I announce the recipients of the 2026 Council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR) Grants Program, supporting ten projects that will strengthen Australia’s economic, cultural and people-to-people links with the Middle East and North Africa.

This year’s grants advance cooperation in areas of shared priority, including climate and clean energy, health, sport, gender equality, and social cohesion, while building trust and connections across a region of growing strategic and economic importance.

Among the selected projects are initiatives that will:

• Expand healthcare access in Lebanon via Australian telehealth innovation and digital health workforce development.
• Strengthen the capacity of Saudi medical professionals to manage work-related illnesses and diseases through joint training programs and academic partnerships.
• Enhance preparedness for respiratory disease outbreaks using AI-driven forecasting of health and economic impacts.
• Advance Australia-UAE marine conservation efforts through collaborative research, technology innovation, and expert exchange.
• Build animal disease surveillance and response capability in Oman with specialised epidemiology training for veterinarians.

Together, these projects showcase Australian expertise and deliver practical opportunities for collaboration and skills exchange.

I congratulate this year’s recipients. Their projects reflect the innovation and ambition that continues to shape Australia’s international engagement and create new opportunities for trade and investment.

Over the past decade, the CAAR Grants Program has invested more than $2.3 million in initiatives that strengthen ties between Australia and the Middle East and North Africa.

More information about CAAR and the Grants Program can be found on the CAAR website.

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) has quietly announced they will resume some payment cancellations and suspensions from 26 October 2026, with plans to return the Targeted Compliance Framework to “full operation” by early 2027. DEWR have decided the following penalties will resume under the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (Cth) from 26 October:

• payment suspensions for work refusal failures and  
• payment cancellations for not meeting a reconnection requirement within 4 weeks.

In December 2025, the Commonwealth Ombudsman released their report detailing the widespread failures of the Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF), which forces people to engage with dodgy private employment services providers who wield the power to issue breaches with no oversight and no real requirement to provide a reason behind the breach. These “breaches” led to payment suspensions and cancellations, however, DEWR stopped these penalties because they were being made unlawfully at a massive scale. 

DEWR revealed their plans to resume sanctions the same day that their Minister, the Hon. Amanda Rishworth MP, was at a conference touting her efforts to help women succeed in small business. The Minister is still yet to provide comment of any kind. 

One of the payments affected is the parenting payment for parents whose youngest child is six years or older. Anyone who has ever raised a child knows that even once they’re in school, your caring responsibilities don’t just suddenly disappear, especially if you’re a single mother. 

Life is getting harder, and many welfare recipients impoverished by the inadequate levels of our support payments are overwhelmed simply ensuring their own survival. Our communities battle daily with the cost of food and rent, with unpaid bills, with our elderly parents’ medical appointments and the cost of our children’s sports equipment. The list of immediate priorities is long, and it’s no wonder that returning a call from their employment services provider or remembering to check their MyGov inbox falls down the neverending to-do list.

Reconnection requirements are still a seriously risky proposition under the TCF. It’s highly likely that someone who’s failed to reconnect after 4 weeks is in serious trouble in one respect or another. They might’ve been hospitalised, they might’ve just lost their home. Regardless, a payment cancellation in these circumstances risks losing people who probably need an arm around them, and they may disengage permanently. Likewise, work refusal penalties are difficult to administer and the legislation is vague. It is on the jobseeker to argue that an offer of work is unsuitable, in a process that does not offer them a fair shout.

Anyone subject to the ridiculous ‘mutual obligations’ their provider imposes upon them knows that these activities don’t work. But the provider doesn’t care about that, because they can get a payment from the Government every time they force somebody into the provider’s own compulsory training module on shaking someone’s hand or on appearing confident, which have never worked anywhere in the world. 

Greens spokesperson on Social Services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:

“There is nothing in the Secretary’s statement that provides any confidence in the legal foundations of the system, nor their capacity to administer that system lawfully or fairly, nor any reason to believe the Ombudsman’s concerns have been appropriately addressed.

“There was nothing about improving DEWR’s capacity to monitor providers’ misconduct. They told the Ombudsman that they had an ‘app’ for that, which turned out to be a new dashboard on their existing system. There is no mention of any improved capacities in this regard anywhere.

“My office has heard reports of providers still threatening people with payment suspensions and cancellations to force people to comply with ridiculous or unnecessary requests, usually to bolster the provider’s incentive payment. That’s not helping anyone – that’s coercion.

“If these sanctions are resumed, the providers will be administering them. How can Minister Rishworth or her Department trust these providers to do the right thing, when they are financially incentivised to do otherwise? The TCF appears fundamentally at odds with lawful and fair decision-making. 

“The Minister and the Department’s failure to communicate these matters in a timely, effective or comprehensible fashion is characteristic of all the worst Robodebt-style governance.”

The seventh hearing of the Greens-led Senate inquiry into intergenerational housing inequity, held in Perth today, heard evidence of a housing catastrophe with house prices and rents rising multiple times faster than wages or inflation.

Additional evidence to the committee today showed:

• In the last 45 years, we have witnessed a catastrophic decoupling of house prices from wages, with real house prices soaring 350% since 1981 while real wages have increased by just 60%. 
• There’s been a significant fall in home ownership for people in their late 20s and early 30s resulting in life long renting.
• It now takes 10.6-12.4 years to save for a 20% deposit compared to around 5 years in 1990.
• Homeowners now pay on average 45% of their income on mortgage repayments, well above the 33% benchmark of housing stress.
• Government schemes, such as the 5% deposit scheme, are insufficient to solving the housing crisis and have pushed up prices.
• Life-term renters generally accumulate less wealth and less retirement security, are more likely to rely on commonwealth rent assistance and the age pension, signalling fiscal challenges ahead.
• Lack of affordable housing is a barrier to attracting essential workers within commuting distance of their jobs.
• People in WA are living in vans, tents, and caravans in relatives’ driveways. There are families by their hundreds living in cars and under bridges. 
• Youth homelessness has risen 32% in the past decade in Perth, while rent has increased by 50% since 2020. 
• On average, one young person experiencing homelessness dies every six days in Australia.
• Renters are being left behind, as government policy focuses heavily on home ownership while the National Rental Affordability Scheme has ended.
• There is a chronic and growing shortage of suitable housing for disabled people in WA. Disabled people face even greater barriers to securing a safe and affordable roof over their heads. 
• Short-stay accommodation like AirBnB is cannibalising the rental market, with 14 unhosted AirBnBs for every long-term rental available in regional WA.
• WA currently remains the only state in the country that still has no grounds evictions on its rental laws. 
• Every year, Western Australia evicts five times more children into homelessness than New South Wales per capita.
• Since WA Labor took office in 2017, more than 3,000 children have been evicted from public housing into homelessness. More than half of all these evictions were First Nations families.

Greens spokesperson for finance, housing and homelessness and Senator for South Australia, Barbara Pocock:

“Today’s evidence is clear: House prices are out of control, rents are out of control, while wages are going backwards. Working hard no longer secures a roof over people’s heads.

“In the past 45 years, real house prices have soared by 350%, while real wages have increased by just 60%. We’ve seen a catastrophic decoupling of housing and wages. 

“House prices need to fall if first home buyers stand any chance of getting into the housing market.

“Rents are rising at record rates forcing people to spend much more than 30% of their income just to keep a roof over their heads. 

‘This housing catastrophe is turbocharging inequality. At the top end, banks, developers, big property investors, and the real estate industry are profiting from disaster, which is ruining the life-chances of millions of young Australians.

“Labor’s plans to fix the housing crisis are not touching the sides. After four years of rapidly increasing house prices and astronomical increases in rents, it’s no wonder Australians are ditching the major parties.

“In a nation-wide housing catastrophe, we need rent caps and a massive long term boost in public investment in good quality homes, renting them to people at prices they can actually afford.” 

Greens spokesperson for Health, Mental Health, Disability Rights, the NDIS and Youth and Senator for Western Australia, Jordan Steele- John

“Across Western Australia, people are sleeping in cars, tents and caravans because they simply cannot find an affordable home. That’s the reality of a housing crisis that governments have allowed to spiral for far too long.

“The evidence heard in Perth today makes it crystal clear that renters, young people and disabled people are paying the price for decades of political failure.

Ahead of the Women’s Safety Ministers Council meeting, the federal government must commit an additional $4.6B to address the shortfall in social housing that would allow women escaping violence to have a secure place to live and rebuild their lives.

Women and children experiencing family and domestic violence are the largest cohort using homelessness services, with over 100,000 seeking support each year. 

The most recent data shows: 

• Nearly 12,000 women and children seeking short term accommodation are missing out each year.¹
• 40% of homelessness services report closing their doors to new clients at least once a fortnight.² 
• In NSW alone, at least 6 women are turned away from services every single night.²
• 60% of victim survivors have not secured stable housing by the time they leave crisis accommodation. For far too many women and children, that means returning to a violent perpetrator.¹ 

Undersupply of public housing continues to exacerbate family, domestic and sexual violence, and puts increased pressure on already stretched frontline services. 

 Additionally, state and federal governments must support women’s safety sector calls to:

• Fully funding critical frontline services 
• Increase Leaving Violence Payments to $7,500 to meet the increased costs of living
• Remove barriers to access for Centrelink crisis payments

Senator Larissa Waters, Leader of the Australian Greens and Spokesperson on Women

“When politicians ask “why didn’t she just leave?”, they’re ignoring that unaffordable housing, rising rents, and crisis and transitional housing shortages leave women and children with nowhere to go. 

“Housing and homelessness is a women’s safety issue. Faced with homelessness, many women are forced to choose to stay in violent homes. 

“Housing pressure means that more victim-survivors are reaching out to crisis accommodation and other frontline services for help. But the sector is breaking at the time it is needed most, forcing services to turn away women and children every day.

“This is something that the government can, and must, fix by investing in public housing and frontline services. The Ministers meeting today must take on this challenge and send a clear signal that women’s safety matters. All victim survivors should be able to access support when they need it.” 

“$4.6 billion is less than a quarter of the $17 billion per year that a gas export tax would generate and a drop in the ocean of the billions we’re currently wasting on nuclear subs we’re unlikely to ever receive. 

“Labor knows there is massive unmet need, but even their pilot project to collect data on that need is years overdue and just got another extension. The sector, and the women and children who rely on it, cannot wait any longer. 

“Labor must start prioritising people over corporate profit, and investing in the things that people need to survive, and live a good life.”   
 

BACKGROUND

Data sources

1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Specialist homelessness services annual report 2024–25, Clients who have experienced family and domestic violence – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare