Australia news live: Biden caught on ‘hot mic’ telling Albanese and other Quad leaders China ‘testing us’ in Pacific

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Refugee and their supporters rally outside Tony Burke’s office

A protest has been held outside immigration minister Tony Burke’s office over the Australian government’s handling of refugee and asylum seeker cases.

The protest has been staged by Refugees in Limbo, a refugee-led group campaigning for a pathway to permanency from the Australian government. The protests began in August, with a camp outside Burke’s office for 15 days.

Organisers of the rally have been livestreaming speeches addressed to a sizeable crowd of hundreds of people calling for the cases of the approximately 8,500 people on temporary protection visas after a decade to be resolved.

Instagram’s new teen accounts don’t negate need for social media ban, Rowland says

Plans by tech giant Meta to impose restrictions on teenage Instagram users do not negate the need for a social media ban for young people, the communications minister says.

The federal government has outlined plans to introduce laws by the end of the year to ban young people from social media, citing mental health and safety concerns.

While an exact age has not been determined for the ban, age verification trials are under way to determine how moves to bar young people from social media platforms could be enforced.

It comes as Meta announced teenage users of its platform Instagram would have enhanced restrictions which would give parents more control and limiting sensitive content.

Michelle Rowland said despite the moves from Meta, a broader crackdown on social media for young people was needed.

Despite the fact that Meta has made this announcement, that doesn’t obviate the need for us to take action in this space.

While social media has many benefits, enables a lot of young people to connect where they otherwise might have been isolated, it comes with those harms.

Rowland said work was ongoing to determine what age would be the limit given for the social media ban.

There is a marked difference between age assurance as it applies to younger ages as opposed to higher ages.

It can also vary depending on ethnicity and also gender … there’s no off-the-shelf solution for this, which is why we’ve been very deliberate in making sure that we are looking at a range of ages and reaching one that is appropriate for the circumstances.

- AAP

LNP promises to build controversial ‘special schools’ to curb youth crime

Queensland’s opposition leader, David Crisafulli, has promised to spend $40m to build four “special assistance schools” targeting kids at risk of crime.

He visited the existing privately run Men of Business school on the Gold Coast to make the announcement. It will be the first beneficiary of the scheme, he said.

Shadow minister Laura Gerber said the school was “turning the lives of young men around, keeping them on the right track and preventing them from going down a life of crime”.

The disability royal commission last year recommended completely phasing out so-called “special schools” to reduce segregation in education.

Crisafulli said the Men of Business school “works”:

I believe in these goals. I really do. I remember the first time I came here and hearing that many of those young men had never sat at the table and had a meal served to them or served a meal to others.

That to me, that’s a big deal, like that’s, that’s the centre of, that’s the centre of the nucleus of a family, right? And they get they’re getting that, and the results show that the percentage of kids who are turned around and go on to become dads and tradesmen. It works.

If elected, the LNP would also build two “youth justice” schools for children on court orders, Crisafulli has previously said.

Biden caught on hot mic telling Albanese and other Quad leaders China 'testing us'

Joe Biden has been caught in a hot-mic moment, saying that he believes China is seeking to “test” the US across the Asia-Pacific.

The US president was meeting Anthony Albanese and their Japanese and Indian counterparts at the Quad summit in Delaware when he made the comments after opening remarks had just been delivered:

China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region, and it’s true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, South China, South Asia and the Taiwan straits.

At least from our perspective, we believe Xi Jinping is looking to focus on domestic economic challenges and minimise the turbulence in China’s diplomatic relationships, and he’s also looking to buy himself some diplomatic space, in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interest.

Biden said he sees Beijing’s actions as a “change in tactic, not a change in strategy”.

China is facing domestic economic challenges as it grapples with the fallout from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is facing a slowdown in industrial activity and real estate prices even as Beijing is seeking to encourage spending to stimulate demand.

The leaders issued a joint declaration after their talks expressing “serious concern about the militarisation … and coercive and intimidating maneuvers in the South China Sea”.

– Associated Press

Chalmers says Beijing trip aimed at stabilising ‘really important economic relationship’

The first visit by a federal treasurer to China in seven years will help to stabilise ties with Australia’s largest trading partner, Jim Chalmers says.

Chalmers is set to meet with top Chinese economic officials during his visit to Beijing on Thursday and Friday.

The meeting comes as diplomatic relations between the two countries have thawed and economic sanctions on several Australian goods such as wine and barley have eased.

The upcoming visit will be the first time an Australian treasurer has visited China since Scott Morrison in 2017.

Chalmers said the trip would aim for a firmer relationship between the two countries.

This is part of our effort to stabilise a really important economic relationship.

This is a relationship full of complexity but full of opportunity as well, and we believe that you get more out of this relationship when you engage as we have been.

The treasurer will hold talks during the two-day visit with officials from China’s Development and Reform Commission.

Australia’s strategic economic dialogue with China is expected to be the main focus of the discussions.

I’ll be meeting with a number of my counterparts in order to compare notes on the economy, to work through any issues that we might have between our two economies.

A more stable relationship, and particularly a more stable economic relationship between Australia and China is a good thing for our workers and our businesses and our investors and for our country more broadly.

- AAP

The Indian PM, Narendra Modi, has responded in kind, posting photos from his meeting with Anthony Albanese.

Separate footage of the meeting posted to social media offer a glimpse of Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the US.

Albanese meets with Modi on Quad summit sidelines

Anthony Albanese has published a photo to social media showing him with the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on the sidelines of the Quad summit in Delaware.

Earlier on Sunday the PM said he was still working to meet with his Indian counterpart, though it was unclear whether the pair had managed to arrange the time.

Albanese has previously said he planned to question Modi about the operation of Indian intelligence agencies on Australian soil.

Nuclear policy costings will come before election, Coalition sayus

The shadow environment minister, Jonathon Duniam, has sought to water down expectations that Peter Dutton will lay out the costs of his nuclear plan in a speech planned for Monday.

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Duniam accused the government of running a scare campaign:

We’ll release the costings well and truly before the election, and Australians deserve to know, and we will have that data out there.

We’ll continue to mount the case for having this as a choice in the energy mix at the right time … we won’t be goaded into [releasing costings] on the government’s timing.

The speech comes as a report released on Friday showed a typical household electricity bill could rise by $665 a year on average if nuclear power were added to the energy grid.

– AAP

Coalition nuclear plans labelled ‘economic insanity’

Peter Dutton’s plans to build seven nuclear power plants are “economic insanity”, Jim Chalmers has said on the eve of a speech by the opposition leader unveiling details behind the policy.

The Coalition has floated a plan to build seven nuclear reactors across five states, should it win the next election, with the first to be built by 2035 to 2037 at the earliest.

The proposed reactors would be built in areas with existing coal-fired power stations, including the Hunter Valley and Lithgow in NSW, Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, Collie in Western Australia and Port Augusta in South Australia.

Dutton is expected to provide more information about the proposal in a major speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia tomorrow. The treasurer said the Coalition’s plan would not solve energy issues:

Peter Dutton’s nuclear fantasy is economic insanity. It costs more, it will push power prices up, it will take longer.

He needs to come clean tomorrow in this speech: what will it cost, what will it mean for power bills, how will he pay for it, and what will Australia do for the decades it will take to build these reactors.

– AAP

Commonwealth expands free shingles vaccine to all immunocompromised adults

Immunocompromised Australians will have free access to the shingles vaccine in an expansion of the immunisation program.

The free vaccine program will now be made available to anyone over 18 who is immunocompromised due to health conditions or a side-effect of treatment.

The program was previously available only to immunocompromised people at high risk, along with people over 65 and Indigenous Australians over 50.

It’s estimated that more than 200,000 people will now have access to the free vaccine.

The health minister, Mark Butler, told ABC Insiders the federal government would spend more than $57m expanding the vaccine program.

Griffith University’s Prof Paul van Buynder said the expanded access scheme would make a difference, particularly as people with compromised immune systems are two times more at risk of developing shingles than those without:

The shingles vaccine can help minimise the impact of this potentially debilitating disease and its complications, like post-herpetic neuralgia. Those with immunocompromised conditions should speak with their doctor or specialist for further information about their eligibility for the [national immunisation program] funded shingles vaccine, and whether it is appropriate for them.

Dr Alan Paul, executive country medical director at GSK Australia, the company that manufactures the vaccine, said the decision “is evidence that the government is committed to providing more protection for those Australian adults considered at increased risk”:

Vaccination is recognised as one of the most cost-effective public health interventions that delivers benefits in the immediate term and into the future.

– with AAP

Crossbenchers urge PM to ditch Howard-era native forest logging exemptions

Independent MPs and a crossbench senator are trying to increase the pressure on Anthony Albanese to remove Howard-era exemptions that allow native forest logging to operate outside national environment laws.

The government has been negotiating changes to the laws in the Senate, where Greens and crossbenchers David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe have been pushing for an end to the exemptions for logging covered by regional forest agreements.

The independent MP for Mackellar in NSW, Dr Sophie Scamps, wrote to Albanese on Thursday urging him to remove the exemptions, saying without that step it would be “difficult to credibly say that your government has kept your promise” to fix broken environment laws.

Co-signatories to the letter, seen by Guardian Australia, were Allegra Spender, Zali Steggall, Zoe Daniel, Monique Ryan, Kylea Tink, Kate Chaney and Thorpe.

Two years ago the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said it was “time to change” laws that did not protect the environment and said legislation could be introduced in 2023.

For more on this story, read the exclusive report from Guardian Australia’s Graham Readfearn:

Still no decision on gambling ad ban, Rowland says

The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, also spoke to Sky about the government’s proposed partial gambling ad ban:

We want to protect children. We want to break the nexus between wagering and sport and we want to deal with the saturation of ads, particularly as that impacts on young men, aged around 18 to 35. So we’re looking at a range of issues with no decisions having been made yet, but I should be very clear … We want people to be excited about the game, not about the odds and for some people, this is a matter that should have been dealt with a decade ago.

And in that time we’ve seen an over-reliance on wagering advertising develop. And whilst around three-quarters of overall gambling losses in Australia actually come from land-based gaming, so that’s poker machines, lotteries and casinos, we know that that online sports wagering section is growing and we need to deal with it.

Asked if she had concerns about the future of free-to-air television, she said:

Well, as communications minister part of my remit is to ensure the sustainability of broadcasting, that includes free-to-air but also subscription broadcasting … and I think it is incumbent on governments to understand the impact of government decisions.

Until someone invents a stable free ubiquitous platform that can either compete with or replace free-to-air broadcasting, I think we need to appreciate that this has a special place, it has a special place particularly in regional areas and especially for people who may be in lower socioeconomic circumstances. So broadcasting remains important. I can tell you, Andrew, I have had people say to me, why is the government concerned about a sector that, in their words, is dying?

I refuse to accept that. Broadcasting is important. The ecosystem in which this subscription broadcast operates is important. And as a government, we need to be methodical and we need to be evidence-based when it comes to responding to this challenge that we have. But we also need to be effective, and that is exactly the balance we’re aiming to achieve.

Inflation has 'roughly' halved since Labor took office, Chalmers says

The treasurer has spoken to Sky News in the lead-up to this week’s release of monthly inflation figures.

Jim Chalmers said although the monthly figures were “pretty volatile and unpredictable”, the data was expected to show inflation “has come off quite substantially”. With inflation either in the high 2% to low 3% range, it is “roughly half” the rate of inflation Labor inherited when it was elected in May 2022.

Chalmers said the fight against inflation was “broadly on the right track”. He refused to criticise the Reserve Bank for statements about the economy running too hot. The challenge for both monetary and fiscal policy was to “get on top of inflation without ignoring the risks to growth”:

We’ve got slightly different responsibilities. And from time to time we will have slightly different perspectives but overall we’re on the same page.

He revealed that the final budget outcome for 2023-24, which was projected in May to be $9.3bn, would come in as a surplus in the “mid teens”. But net overseas migration will come in higher than expected because arrivals are reducing but departures are lower than expected.

Albanese confident in Quad’s future amid US leadership cloud and tensions with India

Speaking to reporters after the Quad summit, Anthony Albanese stressed the importance of the grouping and reinforced that it will endure despite leadership changes that may occur after Joe Biden leaves the US presidency.

I’m absolutely confident. And the fact that we have gathered here in Delaware – President Biden’s home state – is an indication of that. All four nations are committed to the Quad playing an important role.

The grouping’s future was an open question going into the summit, in addition to the effects of diplomatic manoeuvring on the sidelines.

One question concerned the status of Australia’s relationship with India. Albanese had yet to meet privately with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. When asked, Albanese brushed off concerns there may be an issue, saying he had secured a “quick discussion” and the length of the meeting was “a matter of logistics”.

It was flagged before the Quad meeting that Albanese would raise concerns about the presence of an Indian spy cell in Australia. The existence of the “nest of spies” was revealed in 2020 after members were caught trying to steal secrets about sensitive defence projects.

Asked whether Australian personnel may find themselves serving on coastguard vessels in the South China Sea as part of the proposed observer program – a situation that could put them in harm’s way – the prime minister said “those details will be worked out”.

Maritime and health partnerships announced at Quad summit

The Quad meeting has wrapped with the grouping expanding its focus of operations.

Anthony Albanese met with the US president, Joe Biden, and the prime ministers of India and Japan, Narendra Modi and Fumio Kishida, to explore ways of deepening their cooperation.

Among the initiatives announced were:

A plan to reduce the number of cancer deaths in the Indo-Pacific, with public health measures including increased HPV vaccinations to fight cervical cancer.

The expansion of the Quad Indo-Pacific Partnership for maritime domain awareness to build existing capabilities and increase training to counter illicit maritime activities.

An effort to build the ability for humanitarian assistance to be airlifted where needed to better respond to natural disasters in the Indo-Pacific.

A coastguard cooperation agreement to create an observer program that would allow coastguard personnel to serve on vessels from Quad member companies.

One in 20 Australian adults have experienced reproductive coercion and abuse

For the first time, researchers in Australia have estimated the national prevalence of behaviour used to control a person’s reproductive autonomy.

Reproductive coercion and abuse can include interference with contraception by a partner, forced contraception or sterilisation, and control of pregnancy outcomes by forced abortion or forced pregnancy.

Questions about these experiences were added to the country’s largest and most comprehensive study of sexual and reproductive health, conducted once a decade.

For more on this story, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Natasha May:

Health minister wants prosecutions for illegal vape sellers ‘pretty soon’

Just circling back to the conversation with the federal health minister, Mark Butler, who was asked whether stores that will continue to sell vapes despite a ban will face prosecution:

It’s quite clear that some convenience and tobacconist stores are breaking the law … we are going to have to switch to a far more assertive approach. There are very serious penalties in the federal laws now, up to seven years in prison and fines of $2m. And pretty soon I want to see prosecutions starting to be prepared by authorities.

Mark Butler says the demand for mental health care has been growing over the last two decades and the government “wants to go upstream and look at some of the impacts that social media and other things like that are having” on young people which are considered to be the source of this demand.

And that’s a wrap.

GP shortage showing possible ‘green shoots of recovery’, Butler says

Butler says he is “desperately worried” about a shortage of GPs working within the Australian health system:

One in two medical graduates would choose general practice, and it is now one in seven.

The minister says 20% more medical students chose general practice in 2024 than last year:

So there may be some green shoots of recovery.

He says the government has been plugging the gaps by bringing health professionals from overseas but cabinet has also directed all health ministers to come up with a “GP attraction strategy” to sure up the “backbone of our healthcare system”.