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What we learned: Wednesday 3 September
Daisy Dumas
It’s been a big day in Canberra and beyond – here’s what’s been keeping us busy this Wednesday:
Thanks for joining us. We’ll be back with more breaking political news bright and early tomorrow.
Updated at 05.22 EDT
Sarah Basford Canales
Nauru would need to consult with Australia if it plans to change laws to allow return of noncitizens to country of origin
Nauru is required to consult with Australia if it plans to change laws that would allow it to send any members of the NZYQ cohort back to their countries of origin, home affairs officials say.
At tonight’s snap two-hour committee hearing, the department said Nauru’s existing laws prevent it from sending any of the noncitizens it receives from Australia back to home countries that might place them at risk – a move known as refoulement.
The Greens senator, David Shoebridge, asked what assurances Australia had should Nauru decide to change its laws during the arrangement. The immigration head, Clare Sharp, said the deal struck between the countries required Nauru to consult with Australia on any changes to laws regarding refoulement that could affect the cohort.
Shoebridge asked whether the memorandum of understanding contained anything more than a requirement to consult.
Sharp said:
No, but the way the payment mechanisms are structured, there is a strong incentive for Nauru to maintain an arrangement that would allow Australia to comply with its international law.
Updated at 05.13 EDT
Nauru arrangement to offload noncitizens could last as long as 30 yearsSarah Basford Canales
Australia could pay up to $2.5bn to Nauru over 30 years as part of its deal to take noncitizens from Australia on a removal pathway.
In a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday night, the home affairs department’s immigration head, Clare Sharp, told senators the deal included $408m in its first year with $70m a year each year after.
The arrangement could last up to 30 years, meaning the deal would cost Australia $2.508bn over the period.
Sharp said there were additional payments required when Australia applied for each Nauruan visa on behalf of the NZYQ cohort. The fee is about $1,000 per person.
As we reported earlier, most of the funds will be placed in Nauru’s national trust, which is jointly managed with Australia.
Sharp added there were safeguards to claw back the funds in the event that Nauru does not follow through on the deal.
She said:
The terms we’re negotiating include a clawback provision that enable the trust to be dissolved and the funds returned to Australia in the event that the purpose of the head MOU isn’t being achieved …
If there [are] six people on Nauru, the majority of that [yearly] payment goes into a trust and sits in the trust, and should the agreement be frustrated and it never grows and never delivers, the trust could be clawed back.
Updated at 04.50 EDT
Patrick Commins
Michele Bullock: ‘Too early’ to fully understand what AI means for workforce
Michele Bullock, the Reserve Bank governor, says Australian firms do not expect artificial intelligence to replace workers, at least for “the next few years”.
Bullock said the bank’s business liaison program showed four in 10 firms plan to invest in artificial intelligence in the coming three years, and that businesses “mainly expect these tools to augment labour, automating repetitive tasks and redesigning the composition of roles”.
Australian firms “mainly expect” that artificial intelligence tools will “augment” the work of employees by “automating repetitive tasks and redesigning the composition of roles”.
She said:
While AI may eventually automate even some higher skilled tasks, firms tell us that it is too early to fully understand what this means for their workforce beyond the next few years. Some roles may change and the demand for different or new skills may in turn increase.
The RBA governor said she was by nature an optimist about the potential for transformative technologies like AI to “generate waves of innovation as they become integrated across industries and transform the wider economy”.
“But this transformation is not just about profits – it is part of a much larger societal shift,” she said, continuing:
Technological change has always reshaped the labour market, and AI is no exception. As AI continues to reshape industries and economies, it is not just the tools and processes that are evolving – it is the very nature of work.
While many experts anticipate a net increase in jobs, it is likely to be more nuanced: some roles will be redefined, others might be displaced, and entirely new ones will be created.
Updated at 04.30 EDT
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price quickly walks back immigration claim
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has issued a statement to the media after this afternoon claiming Labor’s immigration policies were “ultimately about power” and being influenced by the voting patterns of immigrant communities.
In the statement, the Liberal senator said:
Australia maintains a longstanding and bipartisan non-discriminatory migration policy. Suggestions otherwise are a mistake.
My remarks were made in a wide-ranging interview on ABC where I sought to highlight issues of uncontrolled mass migration and ruptures to social cohesion.
Updated at 04.20 EDT
Sarah Basford Canales
Nauru deal: moving quickly through process is in the interest of both parties, parliament hears
We’re getting a drip feed of further details on the arrangement struck between Australia and Nauru to resettle members of the NZYQ cohort in tonight’s parliamentary inquiry.
Home affairs officials have said there is no deadline for Australia to apply for Nauruan visas for the cohort but the immigration head, Clare Sharp, said it was in both countries’ interests to move quickly through the process.
Sharp also said Nauru wouldn’t receive the flow of money until members within the 354-person cohort begin to arrive.
Sharp confirmed Australia would pay Nauru $408m in the first year with $70m in each year thereafter. She added $388m of that first payment would be placed in the nation’s sovereign wealth trust with $20m directly to the government to facilitate the settlements.
Updated at 04.03 EDT
Teenager assisting police after Gold Coast rideshare driver stabbing
A 16-year-old boy is assisting police after a female rideshare driver was repeatedly stabbed and left for dead in a car park.
The woman was rushed to hospital after being discovered semi-conscious in her vehicle by a security guard at a Gold Coast shopping centre early on Wednesday, AAP reports.
The 32-year-old remains in a critical condition at Gold Coast university hospital with stab wounds to her head, neck and back, police said.
After launching a search, police on Wednesday afternoon said a 16-year-old Coomera boy was assisting their investigations.
Police had earlier alleged a male booked a ride with the female Uber driver and they travelled from Hope Island to Coomera before she was discovered about 1.25am.
“Our investigations say that she was there for an hour or two before being discovered by the security guard,” Gold Coast detective inspector Paul Fletcher told reporters.
The suspect had been described as possibly late teens to early 20s with dark hair, and last seen wearing a green T-shirt and grey tracksuit pants.
Updated at 04.02 EDT
Nampijinpa Price claims Labor encouraging migration from ‘particular countries’ to garner voters
Circling back to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who has claimed Labor’s immigration policies are “ultimately about power” and being influenced by the voting patterns of immigrant communities.
Speaking on the ABC just before, the shadow defence industry minister suggested the government was giving priority to communities that were “more Labor-leaning”.
“Of course there is a focus from this government to be getting [migrants] from particular countries over others … I think Labor would like to be able to ensure they will allow those that would ultimately support their policies, their views and vote for them as well,” she said.
When host Patricia Karvelas pushed Price on who she meant, she responded by claiming there was “concern” over “large numbers” of immigrants from the Indian community, “and we can see that reflected in the way that the community votes for Labor”:
If they’re going to see a reflection that, ‘OK, these individuals are going to vote for us more’ … of course, they’re going to express the view that ‘We’ll get those sorts of individuals into our communities.’”
Ed Husic directly followed Price on Afternoon Briefing, where he suggested the broadcaster’s factchecking team had “so much work to do”.
“We don’t have a preferential system; it’s a nondiscriminatory approach to immigration,” Husic said.
In the wake of the March for Australia rallies on Sunday, federal politicians including Anne Aly and Julian Leeser have expressed concern about racism directed at Australia’s Indian community.
“One of the very clear calls to action [at the rallies] that was listed there was anti-Indian immigration, against people coming from India,” Aly told the ABC on Monday.
Meanwhile, here are some facts when it comes to Australia’s immigration numbers:
Updated at 03.55 EDT
Sarah Basford Canales
Head of immigration department says Nauru deal does not contain specific figures
Home affairs department officials have revealed there are no specific figures contained within Australia’s $400m deal with Nauru to offload hundreds of non-citizen to the Pacific island nation.
In a snap parliamentary inquiry hearing tonight, the department’s immigration head, Clare Sharp, was asked by Liberal senator Michaelia Cash whether the memorandum of understanding between the two nations specified a figure for resettlement.
Sharp said the deal did not contain a figure, and theoretically, Nauru could decide to take no one.
Sharp said there were 354 “NZYQ-affected” people who were released from indefinite detention following the high court ruling in November 2023.
Updated at 03.31 EDT
Caitlin Cassidy
ANU seeks to ‘reassure all current students’ after legal threats over music school
The Australian National University has attempted to “reassure” students after it was threatened with legal action over plans to dismantle the School of Music.
On 21 August, current music students sent a joint letter to management warning they may have breached federal legislation mandating that ANU must “promote the highest standards of practice” in the visual and performing arts and not provide misleading or deceptive representations in its promotional materials and public communications.
The students required ANU to provide a written undertaking by 4pm 3 September demonstrating compliance with statutory obligations lest they take further legal action.
In a response published to the university’s website, lead for social impact in the College of Arts and Social Sciences, Prof Bronwyn Parry Dean, wished to “reassure all current students” that ANU’s change proposal remained under review.
Dean said the current proposal would remove 3.5 full-time equivalent positions and create a new School of Creative and Cultural practice in place of the School of Music, which would affect “staffing and structure, but not the content of the Bachelor of Music”.
A second redesign process, emerging from a curriculum review, would amend the Bachelor of Music program as “part of normal curricula renewal to ensure we remain aligned with international best practice, disciplinary shifts, and student demand”, Dean said:
Students will continue to have opportunities to study performance, composition, and musicology in depth … The changes to the curriculum will affect students entering the Bachelor of Music from 2026. Current students will continue in the structure and delivery of the degree in which they enrolled.
While there may be some changes to the range of courses on offer, this is a usual process across the university, as we amend our programs regularly … The university is fully committed to complying with all its legal and statutory obligations.
Read more here:
Updated at 03.30 EDT
Ed Husic: ‘I haven’t seen a good fascist yet’
Ed Husic has delivered a careful but firm rebuke of Anthony Albanese’s remark that “good people” attended Sunday’s anti-immigration rallies.
Speaking on the ABC a short time ago, the Labor MP said he hadn’t “seen a good fascist yet”:
Those rallies were whipped up by far-right extremists and neo-Nazis. A lot of people were warned about that. I am not in the business of doing ‘there are good people on both sides’ argument.
I think a lot of people in the Australian public would have been extremely unsettled by what they had seen. The way in which people had been targeted, the way in which specifically Indian-Australians had been targeted. I don’t think there is any place for that frankly.
The success story of the nation has been over generations, that we have brought people in and that they have been able to chase their dreams and help build the country up to where it is, and we are a lot stronger for it.
… In particular, I haven’t seen a good fascist yet.
Read more here:
Updated at 02.52 EDT
‘We’ve got to reclaim the flag’, says Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price wants to “reclaim the flag” and believes it is “disrespectful” of the prime minister to stand in front of three flags, rather than the Australian flag alone, in Parliament House.
“What worries me is the way that our flag has been condemned … For such a long time now, it’s been suggested that if you are proud of your Australian flag, you are somehow racist,” the shadow defence industry minister told the ABC just now.
We’ve got to reclaim the flag. I’m reclaiming the flag from that viewpoint, because ultimately, the flag does represent who we are as a country, and I think it’s utterly disappointing and disrespectful that our prime minister stands before three flags instead of one Australian flag – and that we see that displayed all over parliament, including at the front of Parliament House, where we are here to represent all Australians.
Updated at 02.25 EDT