Category: Australian News

The Albanese Labor Government is today introducing legislation to cut 20 per cent off all student debts.

This will wipe more than $16 billion in debt for more than three million Australians.

Our number one focus is continuing to deliver cost of living relief for the Australian people.

Cutting student debt by 20 per cent will ease pressure on workers and students across the country.

For someone with the average debt of $27,600 this will see around $5,520 wiped from their outstanding Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loans.

Backdated to 1 June, it will reduce the burden for Australians with a student debt –  including all HELP, Vocational Education and Training (VET) Student Loans, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans, Student Startup Loans, and other student loans.

In addition to cutting student debt by 20 per cent, the legislation raises the minimum amount before people have to start making repayments from $54,435 to $67,000 and reduces minimum repayments.

For someone earning $70,000 it will reduce the minimum repayments they have to make by $1,300 a year.

This builds on our reforms to fix the indexation formula, which has already cut more than $3 billion in student debt.

This means, all up, the Albanese Labor Government will cut close to $20 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

“This is another way my Government is continuing to deliver cost of living relief to Australians.

“We promised cutting student debt would be the first thing we did back in Parliament – and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

“Getting an education shouldn’t mean a lifetime of debt.

“No matter where you live or how much your parents earn, my Government will work to ensure the doors of opportunity are open for you.”

Minister for Education Jason Clare:

“We promised we would cut your student debt by 20 per cent and we are delivering.

“This is a big deal for 3 million Australians, in particular, a lot of young Australians.

“Just out of uni, just getting started, this will take a weight off their back.

“It will also cut their annual repayments. For someone earning $70,000 a year, it will cut the amount they have to repay every year by $1,300.”

“That’s real help with the cost of living. It means more money in your pocket, not the government’s.”

Minister for Skills and Training Andrew Giles: 

“From speaking with students at TAFEs across the country, I know that cost can often be a barrier to Australians pursuing an apprenticeship or qualification.

“This bill will deliver cost of living relief to almost 280,000 students in the VET sector – cutting half a billion dollars of student debt from this group alone.

“Our Government is focused on reducing the barriers to further study and training, so that every Australian can get the skills they need for secure, well-paid jobs.”

The Albanese Government is accelerating the acquisition of cutting-edge drone and counter-drone technologies for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to keep Australian’s safe and protect our military assets.

Just four months after the announcement of Project LAND 156, the Albanese Government has issued an initial rolling wave of contracts worth $16.9 million to 11 vendors, including five Australian companies, to rapidly deliver counter-drone capability and technologies.

This means that following testing, at least 120 of the world’s most capable threat detectors and drone-defeating technologies, will rapidly be introduced into service by the ADF.

The Government will announce further counter-drone acquisitions in the coming months, including contracts to deliver a command-and-control capability, and additional advanced counter-drone sensors and effectors, giving the ADF more options to protect Australian defence bases.

Through Project LAND 156, the ADF will continually upgrade and refresh capabilities to address emerging drone threats. This process is driven by $58 million of investment by the Albanese Government over the past three years in research, development and prototyping.

The Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator’s (ASCA) Mission Syracuse is also accelerating the development of capabilities to counter medium size drones and swarms of drones, providing cutting-edge future capability options for LAND 156.

The Albanese Government is investing more than $10 billion on drones over the next decade, including at least $4.3 billion on uncrewed aerial systems. This funding will strengthen the sovereign Defence industry, with partners such as Droneshield, Sypaq Systems, AMSL Aero, Grabba Technologies and Boresight.

These capabilities will complement current in-service drones such as the Black Hornet, PUMA, Wasp, Skylark and R70 Skyranger, as well as those currently being introduced into service including the Switchblade 300, Insitu Pacific Integrator, and Quantum Systems Vector 2-in-1.

The ADF has a large array of uncrewed aerial systems already in service, including armed drones. A range of drone capabilities are also being tested at Exercise Talisman Sabre to accelerate evaluation, and delivery into the hands of the ADF.

Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy:

“We have accelerated the acquisition of an appropriate mix of drone capabilities to suit Australia’s environment of military interest and are continuing to examine new autonomous capabilities.

“The Australian Government knows drone and counter-drone technology will continue to evolve rapidly.

“The delivery of cutting-edge drones and counter-drone technology shows the increasing speed at which Defence and industry are able to deliver new capabilities to the ADF.

“Australian industry is critical to delivering this technology, and they are demonstrating world leading innovation while creating Australian jobs.”

Damning new research from the Centre for Public Integrity has revealed that the Albanese Government is worse than the Morrison Government when it comes to refusing Senate Orders for the Production of Documents – critical tools used by the Senate to scrutinise government decisions. 

The Albanese Government’s compliance rate in the 47th Parliament was just 32.8 per cent, the second-worst performance of any federal Parliament since 1993. 

Australian Greens spokesperson for democracy, Senator Steph Hodgins-May:

“This research confirms what Australians already suspect: the Albanese Government is hiding critical decisions from the public.

“These document requests aren’t just political theatre, they’re about exposing how decisions are made, who influences them and whether the public interest is being served. 

“From fossil fuel approvals to billion-dollar contracts, the public has a right to know whose interests are being served, and the Senate has a right to perform its job as a house of review.

“Labor’s track record is worse than even the Morrison Government – less than a third of document orders have been fulfilled. That’s not transparency, that’s secrecy. And the question every Australian should be asking is, what are they hiding?

“When governments dodge scrutiny, it’s usually because powerful corporate lobbies – like the fossil fuel industry – are pulling the strings. If Labor wants to govern for people, not profits, it needs to open its books.

“Our vision is simple: a democracy where the government works for the public, not powerful donors. Where decisions are made in daylight, not darkness.”

A decision handed down by the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal has today confirmed that the NSW Government under the Planning System must consider the local impacts of climate change of the coal that is burnt, regardless of where that is, as a result of the approval of coal mines in NSW. This recognises the causal link between the impacts of climate change and fossil fuel production.  

The Court’s decision has overturned years of denial by the NSW Government and their Independent Planning Commission (IPC), that the planning laws of NSW don’t require scope 3 emissions (emissions from a project that result from the burning of extracted fossil fuels) and their impacts to be considered when assessing fossil fuel projects.   

Greens MP, Solicitor, and spokesperson for Planning and the Environment Sue Higginson said:

“This decision is a significant legal break through and will send shockwaves through a planning system and a Government that has been failing to take real action to prevent climate breakdown,”  

“The years of denial from successive NSW Governments about the facts of the causes of climate change is over. The Court has ruled that the Government bears responsibility for the emissions that they create as a result of the fossil fuel projects they approve. This is a giant leap forward in holding our Governments to account when it comes to the damage they are doing to our climate and local communities through waving through more coal and gas projects,”  

“The coal project that has now been knocked back, Mt Pleasant by MACH Energy, was set to be one of the biggest, dirtiest and highest polluting coal projects in NSW. It would have been allowed to continue for another 22 years, smashing our emissions reductions targets and pouring millions of tons of fuel on the climate fire,”  

“To date, the NSW Government has been able to hide behind our commitment to the Paris Agreement and the Federal Government’s 43% emissions reduction commitment, that’s now over. The Court has held that that is unacceptable and mere lip service to the obligations under NSW planning law to consider the impact of developments that they approve,”  

“Under NSW Law, there is a clear requirement for climate impacts to be assessed when considering polluting projects. The clear and growing scientific body of evidence around the impacts of emissions and the deadly climate impacts hammering our communities has finally cracked through in this decision. The NSW Government will no longer be able to ignore the impacts that emissions are having on our environment and communities when signing off on more coal mines,”  

“Once again, it is the work, courage and strength of local communities who are on the frontline of climate breakdown, witnessing the harm that these massive coal mines are doing to their local environments. They have held the government to account through upholding the law in an epic David Vs Goliath battle, I have run these cases in the court and I know how hard they are,”  

“There is a legal and moral responsibility to minimise climate emissions to the greatest extent possible. With this decision, the Government must now reckon with the fact that they have a responsibility to the whole planet when it comes to allowing more coal to be dug up and burnt. The status quo of setting emissions reduction targets domestically and then exporting the climate crisis is now broken with this decision,” Ms Higginson said.   

The Albanese Government’s decision to join 27 other nations in condemning Israel’s war against Hamas is a disgraceful betrayal of moral clarity and national integrity, Family First said today.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s assertion that Israel’s actions are “indefensible” plays straight into the hands of Islamic terrorists who started the war by murdering, raping and kidnapping innocent Israeli civilians on October 7. Hamas keeps the war alive by holding hostages and continuing to use its own innocent civilians as human shields.

“There would be no war, no starvation, no rubble, no civilian deaths if Hamas laid down its weapons and released the hostages,” Family First National Director Lyle Shelton said. “Instead, Labor has chosen to vilify the only democracy in the Middle East and lend legitimacy to the terrorist regime responsible for this horror.”

“That the Australian Government’s foreign policy is now aligned with the demands of an Islamic death cult should be a source of deep national shame. Hamas is an Islamic terrorist organisation — yet Labor is siding with it over Israel, the victims, and the cause of civilisation itself. This sends a chilling message to the world about where Australia now stands,” Shelton said.

New revelations reported in The Wall Street Journal confirm what Israel and others have long warned: Hamas is obstructing aid delivery in Gaza so it can control the distribution, enrich itself and feed its fighters. According to Arab mediators, Hamas is demanding exclusive control over all humanitarian aid through agencies it dominates — a move designed to extend its power, not relieve suffering.

Israel has rightly resisted returning aid control to the UN’s Relief and Works Agency, after evidence emerged that some UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 massacre. Hamas has systematically looted, taxed and re-sold aid intended for the people of Gaza, turning humanitarian relief into a war profiteering operation.

“If Hamas weren’t pilfering aid and using it to fund its Islamic terrorist rapist murderers and hostage takers, no one would be starving or being killed at aid distribution points,” Shelton said. “Without Islamic terrorism, Gaza could be rebuilt and Jews and Palestinians could live in peace. The blame for every civilian death lies squarely with Hamas.

“It would be good is Prime Minister Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Tony Burke understood this.”

The United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, rightly called the 28-nation statement, including Australia’s, “disgusting” — a shocking indictment of those who pressure Israel while Hamas rejects every ceasefire offer and continues to use civilians as human shields.

Family First stands with Israel’s right to defend itself and calls on the Albanese Government to reverse its appeasement of terrorism. Australia should not reward evil. Hamas must be defeated, and the hostages freed.

Australia has hosted the Australia Group plenary meeting in Sydney to commemorate forty years working together to prevent the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons.

Established under the Hawke Government in 1985, the Australia Group is a part of Labor’s proud legacy in promoting the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Australia convened the first meeting of the group following Iraq’s use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War, and we continue to serve as permanent chair and secretariat.

The Australia Group has expanded from 15 countries in 1985 to 42 countries and the European Union today. For 40 years, its work has been at the forefront of global efforts to counter the development and use of chemical and biological warfare by harmonising export controls and enhancing cooperation.

Through Australia’s leadership of the group, we have played a pivotal role in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

At a time of rising global tensions and increasingly complex challenges, the Australia Group remains responsive to dynamic international events and technological developments to ensure it remains ahead of emerging proliferation threats.

The Australia Group’s publicly available common control lists and guidelines set the global benchmark for chemical and biological precursor export controls.

The Australia Group has released a joint statement to commemorate the 40-year anniversary. More information about the Australia Group is available on its website.

We, the signatories listed below, come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now.

The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

The hostages cruelly held captive by Hamas since 7 October 2023 continue to suffer terribly. We condemn their continued detention and call for their immediate and unconditional release. A negotiated ceasefire offers the best hope of bringing them home and ending the agony of their families.

We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively.

We call on all parties to protect civilians and uphold the obligations of international humanitarian law. Proposals to remove the Palestinian population into a “humanitarian city” are completely unacceptable. Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law.

We strongly oppose any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The E1 settlement plan announced by Israel’s Civil Administration, if implemented, would divide a Palestinian state in two, marking a flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution. Meanwhile, settlement building across the West Bank including East Jerusalem has accelerated while settler violence against Palestinians has soared. This must stop.

We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Further bloodshed serves no purpose. We reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve this.

We are prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region.

This statement has been signed by:

• The Foreign Ministers of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK
• The EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management

Analysis conducted by the Parliamentary Library shows that Labor’s much-touted 20% student-debt cut collapses to a mere 7.9% once indexation since their election in 2022 is accounted for. In other words, the impact of the 20% student debt cut is severely diminished by indexation, even after the Government’s changes to indexation by tying it to the lesser of WPI or CPI.

For a student with a $30,000 student debt in 2022 when the Albanese government came to power, after Labor’s indexation tweaks and the promised 20% debt cut, they will end up with a debt of $27,619 – only 7.9% below what they began with.

The Greens have relentlessly pushed the Albanese Government to deliver desperately needed student debt relief since they came to power, and the pressure has worked in securing the changes to indexation as well as recent commitments to raise the minimum repayment income, introduce a marginal repayment system and cut student debt.

However, Labor’s plans will mean nothing for young people starting a $50,000 arts degree today, whose debt will grow every year due to indexation and take a lifetime to pay off. And effectively only a 7.9% one-off reduction in debt doesn’t even touch the sides of this growing burden.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and spokesperson on Higher Education:

“Since the Labor government was elected, an increase in student debt because of indexation means that the promise of 20% reduction effectively shrinks to just 7.9%.

“Labor crowing about a small one-off debt reduction won’t fix the enormous burden of uni fees or student debt that keeps growing every year.

“Of course any student debt relief is better than none, but we are demanding all student debt be wiped and a return to free uni and TAFE, funded by taxing big corporations to pay their fair share.

“In opposition, Labor spoke a big game against the Morrison Government’s fee hikes for degrees like arts, business and law. In Government, they’ve shown their true colours, smashing students with $50,000 arts degrees that grow every year and take a lifetime to pay off.

“If the Labor government is serious about providing relief to students, scrapping the fee hikes of the failed job-ready graduates scheme should be a matter of urgency.

“Wiping all student debt and making Uni free is not radical, it’s common sense. Other countries do it, Australia used to do it. Free university existed in this country and was dismantled by the very party which now expects applause for a paltry repair job.”

The CGT discount needs to be scrapped if Australia has any chance of addressing the housing crisis, the Greens say.

Lines attributable to Senator Nick McKim, Greens Economic Justice Spokesperson:

“The CGT discount is a gift to wealthy investors that’s helped turn housing into a speculative asset, rather than a human right.”

“It’s one of the most destructive tax concessions in the country. It drives up prices, fuels inequality, and helps to shut an entire generation out of home ownership.”

“Labor knows this tax break is contributing to the housing crisis, but they’re too scared to stand up to the property lobby and their big donor mates.”

Senator Barbara Pocock, Greens housing spokesperson:

“If the Government genuinely wants to fix the housing crisis, scrapping the capital gains tax is an essential and long overdue reform.”

“Let’s be clear – this is a tax break for wealthy property investors, a tax break which comes at a cost to first home buyers and owner occupiers. This is also a tax break that increases levels of homelessness, which have increased by 10 percent under this government since it was elected in 2022.”

“Massive tax breaks for wealthy property investors are cooking our housing system. Instead of everyone having a roof over their head, houses have become an investment asset class – which fuels intergenerational inequality.”

“Instead of funding tax breaks for rich property investors, this government could be redirecting funds to building more public and affordable housing.”

“Unless the Government makes the necessary reforms to the tax concessions for property investors, we’ll continue to see house prices rise and rents spiral. The Greens stand ready to work with Labor to action this urgent reform.”

Community sector advocates have revealed in Estimates today that 1000 homes out of Labor’s target of 5000 new affordable homes will be delivered by the private market as part of the land tax concession scheme–a target which community advocates say cannot be reached without greater government investment.

Leader of the ACT Greens, Shane Rattenbury:

“Labor’s target of five thousand new ‘affordable’ homes was already questionable because their definition of affordability already puts half of wage earning Canberrans definitionally into rental stress. 

”But today’s news that it is dependent on private landlords putting up 1000 homes–20% of the target–really highlights the unreliability of the magic pudding maths of Labor’s target.

“This lack of reliability is underlined by the community organisations telling us that they are struggling to support more houses in the scheme, because they are not funded to deliver the volume of service announced.

“It’s clear the government is shirking its own responsibility for delivering affordable housing for Canberrans by over relying on this scheme to deliver.

“Since the launch of the scheme around five years ago, 250 generous Canberrans have offered up their properties for rental through the land-tax concession scheme and the government expects this number to somehow skyrocket to 1000 without any further incentives or any increased funding to housing providers.

“The Greens are clear: we support the land tax concession scheme through and through. It was originally a Greens proposal by my former colleague Caroline Le Couteur, that taps in to the community spirit of property owners in the city

“But the reality is, it simply cannot be the answer to 20% of our affordable housing target in this city–it’s just not realistic.

“Time and time again, we see not just this government, but governments across the country neglecting their role in fixing this cooked housing market by failing to realise that the private market and the community sector alone cannot fix this crisis. The government needs to step in and deliver a funding model for community and public housing that is actually realistic. 

“This news underscores the need for Labor to get real about their target of affordable housing, and fess up that not only is their definition of ‘affordable’ incredibly flawed, but that the target of 5000 contains speculative elements.”