Australia news LIVE: Home affairs minister flags migration overhaul; COP27 climate summit begins
Key posts
- ‘A state of disrepair’: Home affairs minister slams immigration system
- Workplace Minister reveals multi-employer bargaining compromise
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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‘A state of disrepair’: Home affairs minister slams immigration system
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has declared Australia’s migration system is broken and being exploited by overseas criminals, and has flagged an independent inquiry to examine revelations of widespread visa rorting linked to sex trafficking, foreign worker exploitation and drug crime.
In her strongest comments yet about the failings in the system, O’Neil blamed her predecessor, Liberal Peter Dutton, and revealed she had received expert advice that “tens of thousands of people” might be unlawfully in Australia, including many who are exploited foreign workers.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“We’ve ended up with a system where there’s massive visa queues and where the people who actually legitimately want to use the system can’t properly use it. And yet criminals who want to bring people into the country as slaves are able to somehow do it,” O’Neil said.
“We’ve got to change the way that this system operates.”
O’Neil made the comments after she was privately briefed by Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw and Border Force commissioner Michael Outram in response to a series of reports in this masthead about organised crime exploitation of the visa system.
More on this issue here.
Workplace Minister reveals multi-employer bargaining compromise
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has given ground on a controversial legal change that would force businesses and employees into multi-employer bargaining against their will.
But key crossbench senator David Pocock, whose vote will be crucial in determining whether the changes become law, has stepped up calls for the “rushed” legislation to be split to allow more time for adequate scrutiny of the contentious elements – but he stopped short of vowing to vote against it.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Debate on the federal government’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill will begin tomorrow and a vote in the lower house is expected by Thursday, leaving federal Labor two more sitting weeks to rush the bills through the Senate before the end of the year.
Yesterday, Burke said the legislation would be changed so smaller businesses that voted against entering into multi-employer bargaining could not be dragged to the negotiating table by a business with a much larger number of employees that had voted in favour of multi-employer bargaining.
Read the full story here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning and thanks for your company.
It is Monday, November 7. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started.
- The United Nations climate summit COP27 is officially underway in Egypt. While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won’t be in attendance, Pacific Minister Pat Conroy is there to represent Australia.
- Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has declared that Australia’s migration system is broken. It follows a series of reports in this masthead about organised crime and the exploitation of the visa system.
- Workplace Minister Tony Burke says Labor won’t force small businesses to enter multi-employer bargaining with larger businesses. Debate over the government’s key industrial relations reforms begins in parliament tomorrow.
- The largest individual donor to Climate 200 during this year’s federal election campaign has been revealed.
- And in international news, Ukraine’s capital is preparing for a winter with no heat or water.
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