Key events
PIF: Australia urged to step up support for Pacific neighbours
Good morning from Tonga, where the Pacific Islands Forum has entered its second day.
With the climate crisis expected to be high on the agenda, an alliance of civil society groups have called on Australia to “step up and support our Pacific neighbours”.
Climate finance is expected to be a major issue at Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan in November, due to the imminent expiry of the previous commitment by wealthy countries to mobilise $US100bn of climate finance a year.
An alliance of groups, including ActionAid Australia and Oxfam Australia, have urged Australia to declare its support for a new $US1 trillion global climate finance goal, arguing this could prompt other wealthy nations to step up. They have set out their case in a new report titled Seizing the Moment: A New Climate Finance Goal That Delivers for the Pacific.
The report said both Australia and New Zealand’s own climate finance contributions were “falling short of need”. It said Australia had committed to provide $AU3bn in the five-year period to 2025, but this was “well short of its estimated fair share of the $US100bn goal, which is $AU4bn per year”.
Rufino Varea, the regional director of the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, said Pacific communities were “enduring some of the world’s worst climate impacts despite contributing the least to the crisis”.
The executive director of ActionAid Australia, Michelle Higelin, said:
We can’t tinker around the edges when it comes to climate finance. The climate crisis is already pushing Pacific countries into excruciating debt, and deepening gender inequality.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is in Tonga and is expected to address the issue a little later today. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is due to fly out of Australia later this morning and is due to arrive in Tonga tonight for the talks, which wrap up on Friday.
Police forces across the country have arrested 1600 people, laid more than 2900 charges and seized over $93m of drugs in a week-long action targeting illicit drug and organised crime activity.
In a statement Victoria Police said the operation’s sole aim had been “to reduce the availability of illicit drugs – and the associated life changing harm they present – within the community”.
Operation Vitreus involved all Australian state, territory and federal police forces, as well as New Zealand Police. It ran from Monday to Friday last week and 528 search warrants were executed across the two countries.
The statement said the operation had seen:
1611 drug related arrests
2962 drug related charges
Almost 1400kg of illicit drugs and over 2500 cannabis plants, with a street value of approximately $93m
71 gun seizures
Minister to unveil new international student cap
Paul Karp
The education minister, Jason Clare, told the Australian Financial Review higher education conference last week the new proposed international student cap will be provided to universities “in the coming week”.
Guardian Australia understands that this will be made public today. The tertiary education sector expects at least an overarching figure of how many international student enrolments the government is planning for 2025.
The universities sector is expected to push back strongly, arguing that restrictions that have already been put in place have already cut numbers.
In his speech last week, Clare set out the justification for the cap:
Two years ago there were 521,831 international student enrolments in Australia. Today there are 810,960. Today there are about 10% more in our universities than there were before the pandemic.
The bigger growth has been in VET (Vocational Education and Training). There are almost 50% more in VET courses than there were before Covid hit.
That growth has also brought back the shonks looking to make a quick buck. It has lured people who really are here to work, not study. And it’s put the reputation of this industry under pressure. That’s a fact.
It has also resulted in ministerial direction 107. If you work in international education you will know the impact that has had.
Some universities have benefited from it. But some have been hit hard. It’s why a lot of universities have asked me to act to put more sustainable arrangements in place. I know universities and other international education providers are craving detail. That detail will be provided to universities in the coming week.
This will be a better way to manage international education. It will be fairer and provide a better foundation for it to grow sustainably into the future.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer bringing you the best overnight stories before Emily Wind takes up the slack.
More voters back Peter Dutton’s call to pause arrivals of Palestinians from the Gaza conflict than oppose it, our latest Essential poll shows, in a sign the opposition leader’s rhetoric is politically profitable. Responding to a question whether Australia was heading in the right direction, 52% said no and 29% said yes.
Following on from that, the government showed last night how it will tackle Dutton’s threat when the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, unleashed a stinging attack on the opposition leader, calling him “the most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia’s modern history”. Giving the John Curtin Oration in Melbourne, Chalmers accused the opposition leader of starting culture wars, dog whistling and dividing Australians “deliberately, almost pathologically”. More coming up on these political stories with reaction expected to Chalmers’ comments.
Guardian Australia understands that the education minister, Jason Clare, will today reveal the new proposed international student cap for universities. The tertiary education sector expects at least an overarching figure of how many international student enrolments the government is planning for 2025. More coming up.
Australia has recorded its hottest-ever winter temperature, with Yampi Sound in the Kimberley region of Western Australia reaching 41.6C yesterday. The record is expected to be officially confirmed by the BoM later today and exceeds the old national record of 41.2C, which was reached at West Roebuck on 23 August 2020. It comes amid record temperatures across Queensland, Western Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales, and has seen spring flowers appear extra early.
And police across the country have arrested 1,600 people, laid more than 2,900 charges and seized over $93m worth of drugs as part of Operation Vitreus, a week-long joint operation targeting illicit drug and organised crime activity. More details soon.
