00:01We were expecting six weeks ago for Tony Burke to stand up and address the National
00:06Press Club and now that's happening today.
00:07And his speech there was kind of pulled quite dramatically and people were wondering why
00:12and what was kind of essentially gathered was that there was disagreement with inside
00:16the Cabinet.
00:17Now, there seems to be an agreement, he'll be up today, and what the government's looking
00:21to do is reduce the number of temporary migrants in the country.
00:25At the moment, there are about three million of them in the country at any one time and
00:30through doing that, we'll be looking at reducing the net overseas migration number.
00:35That currently sits at about 300,000, so that's looking at the number of people coming into
00:39the country to live minus the number of people leaving the country to live.
00:43Labor wants to bring that number down to 225,000 people a year by 2028.
00:49To do that, this is where Tony Burke's speech we're expecting will centre today.
00:53We're expecting he'll announce that the international students, there'll be a ban on them being allowed
00:58to bring family members into the country.
01:01There'll be some cracking down on visa hopping, so where a temporary migrant comes into the
01:06country on one visa, stays and then looks to move between visas to stay and work in the
01:11country.
01:12We're also expecting moves to further restrict temporary visa holders coming into the country
01:19to bring that number down.
01:21Now, as I mentioned, this National Press Club address was due to happen about six weeks ago.
01:27There was that disagreement about exactly where it was landing.
01:30We understand that there was some dissenting views among ministers about the direction that
01:36it should lead.
01:37It's now happening today, but we also do know that the coalition and government have been
01:43in talks, which has landed at a point where the government's decided to push these changes
01:49through at a regulatory basis rather than try to get legislation through the parliament.
01:53So indicating that they understood that they wouldn't have the support of the coalition trying
02:00to get some of this regulation through the parliament.
02:02But this is very much about the government trying to thread the needle, trying to reduce overseas
02:08migration into the country.
02:10There's a broad acceptance among the political parties here that, you know, that that needs
02:14to happen, that that's politically palatable to the public.
02:17So trying to reach that goal, but also without having negative impacts on the economy.
02:23And this is something that Cabinet Minister Tanya Plibersek spoke about earlier today.
02:27TANYA Plibersek, Tanya Plibersek, We want to do that in a way that is sensible and methodical.
02:30We know that this country needs skilled migration, the, you know, our health system, our aged care
02:36system, our agricultural sector wouldn't work without overseas migration.
02:43We need to make sure that that continues, but in a way that meets Australia's needs,
02:49puts Australia's needs first.
02:51Now, Nicole, we know that the full details won't be released until later today at Press Club,
02:55but from what we know so far, how's it being received?
02:59TANYA Plibersek, In particular, the university sector has raised concerns.
03:03Um, I think that, you know, there's a feeling there that they've been under pressure repeatedly
03:07since earlier in the year, when the coalition announced that, you know, they would, in theory,
03:11target, um, um, students through, you know, international students through a policy that
03:16they will eventually announce.
03:18Then One Nation earlier this week made a similar announcement, which is interesting, saying that,
03:22you know, um, university students, international students would be allowed to bring family members
03:26in on their visa, and now the government doing a similar thing.
03:30The university is, um, kind of warning that this is a concern to them, um, pointing out the importance
03:36of these international students in not only funding, um, um, the universities, you know,
03:41they pay fees to subsidise, um, Australian students and saying that if it's less appealing,
03:46then maybe they won't come.
03:48We did hear from the Universities Australia's Luke Shee earlier, and he's talked about how,
03:53you know, this, this policy could, he sees it as a very much intentional looking to bring down
03:57the number of international students.
03:59I think this is going to do lasting damage. We've already seen the world's highest visa
04:05application fees. We're sending the wrong signals at a time when international students
04:10can help turbocharge not only our universities, uh, the way we operate, but our skills base for
04:16the future. Half of our PhD students in science and technology are international students. We need
04:23those high-skilled workers and high-skilled researchers in our economy. I'm deeply worried that we
04:28continue to chip away at the wonderful goodwill we have right across the world because of
04:34international education in this country. This is just yet another example of this today and it's
04:39deeply worrying. Now, in addition to the university sector raising, uh, concerns, we've also heard
04:46from One Nation who are saying that they think that Labor kind of copied their homework and stole ideas
04:51from One Nation, looking particularly at that, that international student sector. We've heard from
04:56the coalition saying that, oh, look, they would have actually supported, um, you know, Labor in
05:00going, you know, going through Parliament if they liked what they saw, which clearly they didn't.
05:05They're critical that it's not going far enough. There's not a real meaningful reduction in that
05:10NOM number. They're saying, you know, they're just kind of making this forecast come true.
05:14Um, but you know, as the day progresses, we'll, uh, look forward to hearing, um, from Tony
05:19Birkin and his speech to the National Press Club, which interestingly is titled,
05:23who arrives, who stays and who leaves. So, more on that later, Kath.
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