Guardian Essential poll: more voters blaming Albanese government for interest rate rises

However poll shows majority back Labor’s plan to cap international students enrolments in tertiary education

More voters are blaming the Albanese government for interest rate rises but Labor appears to have hit the electoral sweet spot with its proposed cap on international student enrolments.

Those are the conclusions of the latest Guardian Essential poll of 1,132 voters conducted after a week of debate about whether the Reserve Bank should begin cutting interest rates due to extremely soft growth.

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Australia news live: tens of thousands still without power in Victoria; poll shows growing support for drug injecting rooms

Storms in three states is expected to ease today. Follow all the news headlines live

Crews are continuing to restore power to Victorians after strong winds damaged powerlines and left thousands without power.

According to AusNet, there are still 37,500 without power, and according to Citipower and Powercor, there are 17,484 customers still affected.

We have restored power to over 43,063 customers as crews continue repairing the power network that was extensively damaged during last night’s wild weather.

Crews are responding to more than 380 individual faults, replacing power poles, reconnecting fallen powerlines and repairing other electrical infrastructure damaged by trees, branches and other debris.

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Rise in Palestinian applications for onshore protection visas as pressure grows on Albanese government

More than 300 Palestinians applied for onshore protection visas over June and July, home affairs department figures show

The number of Palestinians applying onshore for protection has continued to grow, increasing pressure on the Albanese government over its decision to require them to come to Australia on visitor visas first.

According to home affairs department statistics, the number of Palestinians applying for onshore protection visas increased from 119 in May to 157 in June and 176 in July.

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Government gives itself power to pay any non-citizen to leave Australia

Exclusive: Greens decry expansion of scheme to ‘all non-citizens’ – including those whose asylum claims were rejected after arriving by air – as a ‘bribe’

The federal government has quietly given itself the power to pay any unlawful non-citizen to leave Australia or for foreign countries to resettle them, in what the Greens have labelled an attempt to “bribe” asylum seekers.

New regulations made on 15 August expanded the return and reintegration assistance program (RRAP), which currently pays up to $7,500 cash plus expenses to people on bridging visas, or those who arrived by boat, to leave Australia.

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Australia news live: winter heat record set in South Australia; NZ suspends import of all Australian tomatoes

South Australia has notched up its hottest winter day on record. Follow the day’s news live

David Anderson says it was ‘the right time for me’ to resign from ABC

The ABC managing director, David Anderson, is speaking with ABC RN after yesterday’s announcement of his resignation.

And I think the right time for the ABC. It is something I had thought about now for months, and went away on leave, spoke to [ABC chair] Kim [Williams] a lot. Kim tried to get me to change my mind. [I] came back from leave with it, certain in my mind that I was making the right decision.

We’ve got a long lead time for the board to find a new managing director, and I’ve been asked to and I agreed to stay on until that person starts, which could very well be April next year.

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Labor quietly extends work and Medicare rights to some visa-holders from Gaza and Israel

Rights granted to two subclasses of bridging visa E as part of ‘additional assistance’ to those affected by conflict

The federal government has extended work rights and Medicare access to some visa-holders from Gaza and Israel as it prepares to shift those who arrived on visitor visas since the 7 October attacks on to bridging visas.

Without public announcement, the government issued a regulation on 5 August extending Medicare access to people holding two subclasses of bridging visa E who had already been granted work rights, and also to immediate family members who are also visa-holders.

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Peter Dutton tells Coalition party room he only wants temporary pause on Gaza visas as part of ‘principled stance’

Some Coalition MPs have indicated privately they would be concerned if opposition leader was advocating to permanently refuse visas to Palestinians

Peter Dutton has assured Coalition MPs he is only calling for a temporary pause in allowing people from Gaza to come to Australia, after some were concerned he wanted a permanent ban.

In his weekly address to the Coalition party room, Dutton insisted the Coalition had taken “a principled stance” in challenging the visa approval process for applicants from Gaza and demanding greater security checks.

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Peter Dutton deliberately stirred division with Gaza visa comments, Jim Chalmers says

Treasurer says Australia must choose ‘high road’ as fallout from opposition leader’s position on visa-holders from Gaza rumbles on

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has accused Peter Dutton of deliberately stirring up division on visa-holders from Gaza, as the opposition rejected an independent MP’s description of him as “racist” and called the label “disgraceful”.

In an interview for the Australian Politics podcast, Chalmers said he remains worried about community division and suggested Dutton’s comments – that all visa-holders from Gaza posed a national security risk – were not designed to improve it.

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Australia news live: Palaszczuk appointed to Australia Post board; Shorten says Dutton ‘implying all Gazans are terrorists’

Palaszczuk, who retired from politics in December after almost nine years as QLD premier, will serve a three-year term as a non-executive director. Follow today’s news headlines live

‘We have to have a constant reminder’

The committee also called for a culturally appropriate and nationally significant recognition and remembrance of murdered and disappeared First Nations women and children. Dorinda Cox said this would be “significant” if the government accepted the recommendation:

It would … have some permanent features to remind us the role that history has played for missing and murdered or disappeared women and children and First Nations women and children in this country, because there’s a story there that needs to be told, and we have to have a constant reminder.

Like we do … with the Australian war memorial of the safety that we have as a country, but also that this part of our history – this is now ingrained in and sketched into. And if we want to continue to work on this and continue to maintain safety for women and children and the most vulnerable, which is First Nations – as we know, we’re in an emergency for all women, but First Nations women and children are at the front of that – we have to have some permanent features, otherwise we become invisible.

What we hear too often is that this is a state and territory problem. States are responsible for their police forces, in particular … We have to centre our approaches and our outcomes in [addressing these issues] and we have to look at the culture of the organisations, such as police.

There’s lots of reporting on the media in relation to the attitudes of police across Australia, and that has to get better, but we have to have a measure against that – we can’t just put in the attorney general [to] have a chat to the police ministers, and nothing changes … Because if we don’t look at this in a way of wanting change, nothing ever changes.

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Peter Dutton says Australia should not accept Palestinians from Gaza due to ‘national security risk’

Coalition leader’s escalated rhetoric immediately rejected by senior Albanese government figures

Peter Dutton has escalated the Coalition’s rhetoric against Palestinians fleeing the Gaza war zone, claiming that none should be allowed to Australia “at the moment” due to an unspecified “national security risk”.

The comments from the opposition leader on Wednesday contradict the assessment by the Asio spy chief, Mike Burgess, that rhetorical support for Hamas should not be an automatic bar to Palestinians receiving visas.

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‘Three or four’ countries involved in foreign interference in Australia including ‘friends’, Mike Burgess says

Asio director general says some of the countries trying to intimidate diaspora communities ‘would surprise you’

Australia’s spy boss, Mike Burgess, has confirmed that Iran is one of “at least three or four” countries involved in foreign interference in Australia’s diaspora communities.

Speaking on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, the director general of security in charge of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said he could think of “at least three or four [countries] that are we’ve actually actively found involved in foreign interference in Australia and diaspora communities”.

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Five issues that threaten to derail the Albanese government’s plans before the next election

The PM wants the focus to be on first-term achievements and cost-of-living relief but question marks remain over religious freedoms and gambling ads

After a five-week break, the spring session of the parliamentary year is about to begin. Early election rumours continue to swirl – the “break in case of emergency” date bandied around the corridors of power remains 7 December. Calmer heads will point out that voters would only hit the polls on that date if the political situation appeared irrevocably difficult for the Albanese government, given that the last months of the year will be dominated by the US election and its outcome.

Either way, there are only nine months until the very last date the next election could be held. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for the Albanese government to complete its first-term agenda, regardless of whether it returns Australians to the polls before May. Albanese wants the focus to be on cost-of-living relief and the reforms the government has already passed through parliament, but stumbling blocks threaten to derail the agenda.

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Australian universities accused of awarding degrees to students with no grasp of ‘basic’ English

In the first part of a Guardian series, academics say universities have turned a blind eye to language shortcomings because of the revenue generated from international student fees

International students who cannot speak “basic English” are walking away from Australian universities with prestigious degrees, academics say, a situation one described as “mind-blowing” .

More than a dozen academics and students who spoke to Guardian Australia, most on the condition of anonymity, said the universities’ financial reliance on foreign students over many years had hollowed out academic integrity and threatened the international credibility of the sector.

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Immigration detainee charged over alleged drug ring operating from inside Villawood detention centre

Police allege the man used an encrypted messaging service to deal drugs and coordinate a network of runners outside the Sydney facility

An immigration detainee and another man have been charged over an alleged drug ring operating from inside a detention facility.

Police say the 49-year-old dealt large amounts of methylamphetamine using an encrypted messaging service from Villawood immigration detention centre in Sydney’s west.

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CrowdStrike has ‘issued a fix’ to Windows outage – as it happened

This blog is now closed. Follow the latest developments on the global Microsoft outage live blog

Shorten says last CFMEU Labor donation was over two years ago

Earlier on the Today Show, the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, was asked about the CFMEU and said that the last donation received by the Labor party from them was more than two years ago.

We’ve said that we’re suspending all donations from the CFMEU. In fact, we’ve suspended the CFMEU from the Labor party … The last donations were over two years ago. We’ve taken the action to stop any financial relations with the CFMEU.

I want to make clear there is zero tolerance for anyone who tried to subvert the demerit and penalty system. This taskforce will help ensure the penalties apply to all road users.

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Australia to strike new funding deal with Papua New Guinea to manage transferred asylum seekers

Exclusive: Government regulations reveal Australia will provide ‘further capability support and funding’ to PNG but dollar figure is confidential

The Albanese government will strike a new funding deal with Papua New Guinea (PNG) to support asylum seekers after the country threatened to send them back to Australia unless a fresh agreement was signed.

In December 2021 the Morrison government struck a secret deal for about 75 refugees and asylum seekers to stay in Port Moresby after the regional processing centre at Manus Island was closed.

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International students should make up no more than a third of university cohort, RMIT vice-chancellor says

Foreign visa holders account for more than 35% at Australia’s prestigious Group of Eight institutions

International students should not exceed a third of any university cohort and it is “damaging to the sector” for foreign students to make up 50% of students at any given institution, RMIT’s vice-chancellor, Prof Alec Cameron, has said.

The proposal to cap international student numbers was raised last month by Deakin University’s vice-chancellor, Iain Martin, as an alternative to the draft framework which would allow the federal education minister to implement different enrolment limits depending on the university or course.

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Surge in Palestinians applying for protection while in Australia prompts calls to create ‘emergency uplift’ visa

Exclusive: Use of tourist visas not fit for purpose, advocates say, as Gaza man describes how coming to Australia on one has left him with ‘no rights’

The number of Palestinians applying onshore for protection in Australia has ballooned, prompting calls from refugee advocates for the creation of an “emergency uplift” visa rather than people fleeing conflict relying on tourist visas to escape.

Home affairs department statistics for May revealed 119 people from the “Palestinian Authority” had applied for onshore protection visas, up from 66 in April, 110 in March, 88 in February and 33 in January.

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Labor hikes international student visa fees as sector warns of ‘death by 1,000 cuts’

Australia’s charge out of step with competitors – ‘why would you waste that much money when you have more surety of going to the USA?’

The Albanese government has more than doubled the international student visa application fee from $710 to $1,600 in the latest measure to reduce arrivals to Australia.

The government announced the move on Monday, confirming pre-budget speculation in the tertiary education sector that fee hikes will be used in addition to the international student cap as a means to clamp down on net migration.

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Drugs, alcohol and ‘horrendous’ attacks in detention centres leave ABF reeling

Exclusive: Commissioner Michael Outram appeals for greater powers to manage ‘high level of risk’ and worrying rates of addiction in facilities

The commissioner of the Australian Border Force is appealing to the government for increased search powers to crack down on drugs and alcohol in immigration detention, where he says addiction is rife and violence is on the rise.

After “quite horrendous assaults” on Serco staff in detention centres, Michael Outram said expanded search powers “would be of great assistance” to reduce the “high level of threat and risk” posed by detainees with access to drugs and alcohol.

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