‘Let's kick the tires': Questions raised around student visa surge
'They say one thing before an election and then afterwards something quite different,' Ms McKenzie said.
'As long as the infrastructure is being planned, we can have some confidence in growth.
'Let's kick the tires and see what sits behind that and make sure that it's not going to increase pressure elsewhere in the Australian economy.'
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The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
The dissident award-winning artist keeping a close watch on China
In an upstairs room of a Collingwood gallery hangs a line of colourful prints on a wall. It's only when you look closely that you see small areas of damage, evidence of their role in a troubled recent past. Dissident Chinese artist Badiucao points to a scratch on one and steps back. 'Some of the frames are even broken', he explains, saying it was a deliberate choice to leave them this way. These works were originally slated for display in 2018 at a doomed exhibition in Hong Kong. They now open his first Australian solo show, Disagree Where We Must. One of the prints features Joshua Wong, a key figure in Hong Kong's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. At the time it was created, Badiucao was working anonymously. But three days before the Hong Kong show was due to open, 'the Chinese government found out my identity and took my relatives into the police station, ' he says. In response, he cancelled his show. A year later he shed his anonymity and finally revealed his face and identity to the world. The scratches and dings, he explains, help tell the story of how this group of works was hurriedly removed and hidden in the months and years after the show was cancelled. The Shanghai-born Badiucao, who now lives in Australia, contributes to this masthead and is a Walkley Award winner for his cartoons, has always used his art to critique mainland China's government, its policies, and historical wrongs. This ethos is on full display in Disagree Where We Must. Held in Collingwood's Goldstone gallery, a space opened by artist Nina Sanadze this year, the exhibition takes its title from the Labor government's stated approach to China: 'We will co-operate where we can, disagree where we must, but engage in our national interest.' A room at the back of the space is devoted to a video that first screened on billboards in Hong Kong earlier this year in a test of the limits of free speech in the wake of the sweeping National Security Law implemented in 2020. In the four-second clip, Badiucao silently mouths the words 'you must take part in revolution'.
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The dissident award-winning artist keeping a close watch on China
In an upstairs room of a Collingwood gallery hangs a line of colourful prints on a wall. It's only when you look closely that you see small areas of damage, evidence of their role in a troubled recent past. Dissident Chinese artist Badiucao points to a scratch on one and steps back. 'Some of the frames are even broken', he explains, saying it was a deliberate choice to leave them this way. These works were originally slated for display in 2018 at a doomed exhibition in Hong Kong. They now open his first Australian solo show, Disagree Where We Must. One of the prints features Joshua Wong, a key figure in Hong Kong's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. At the time it was created, Badiucao was working anonymously. But three days before the Hong Kong show was due to open, 'the Chinese government found out my identity and took my relatives into the police station, ' he says. In response, he cancelled his show. A year later he shed his anonymity and finally revealed his face and identity to the world. The scratches and dings, he explains, help tell the story of how this group of works was hurriedly removed and hidden in the months and years after the show was cancelled. The Shanghai-born Badiucao, who now lives in Australia, contributes to this masthead and is a Walkley Award winner for his cartoons, has always used his art to critique mainland China's government, its policies, and historical wrongs. This ethos is on full display in Disagree Where We Must. Held in Collingwood's Goldstone gallery, a space opened by artist Nina Sanadze this year, the exhibition takes its title from the Labor government's stated approach to China: 'We will co-operate where we can, disagree where we must, but engage in our national interest.' A room at the back of the space is devoted to a video that first screened on billboards in Hong Kong earlier this year in a test of the limits of free speech in the wake of the sweeping National Security Law implemented in 2020. In the four-second clip, Badiucao silently mouths the words 'you must take part in revolution'.
Canberra Times
an hour ago
- Canberra Times
Childcare safety failures are a shock, how we respond shapes us for years to come
Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily! Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! Be the first to know when news breaks. As it happens Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. Get the very best journalism from The Canberra Times by signing up to our special reports. As it happens Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. Get the latest property and development news here. We've selected the best reading for your weekend. Join our weekly poll for Canberra Times readers. Your exclusive preview of David Pope's latest cartoon. Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. Don't miss updates on news about the Public Service. As it happens Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update. More from Court and Crime Sue Morphet is the former chief executive officer of Pacific Brands and past president of Chief Executive Women. Now, more than ever, Australia needs a robust, universal early childhood education system that supports women's workforce participation, economic and community prosperity, and ensures our children get the best start in life. This progress remains vulnerable and requires ongoing commitment. The gains Australian women have made in workforce participation didn't happen by chance; they resulted from deliberate policy choices that strengthened entire communities. In crisis, the temptation is to abandon what seems broken rather than fix it. But our early learning system is too important to abandon. We need better oversight, routine quality assessments, fairer wages and more support for our dedicated early educators. The overwhelming majority deserve our respect, not suspicion. This system needs serious reform. New powers to strip funding from failing providers must be the beginning, not the end. We must see early childhood education as essential infrastructure, like our schools and hospitals, vital to thriving communities. Real flexibility requires structural reforms: universally accessible paid parental leave shared between partners; targeted tax reforms to reduce effective marginal rates that discourage women from increasing their hours; and most importantly, building a universal early learning system where access isn't determined by postcode or income. Ideas such as replacing early learning support for families with tax deductions might sound like flexibility, but they're a mirage. They disproportionately benefit higher-income families and fail to help those most in need of safe, affordable early education. Nonetheless, we've failed to utilise our single biggest untapped resource: scores of qualified Australian women, over 140,000 of whom still cite early learning costs or availability as barriers to working more. We're leaving this immense talent base on the table at a time we absolutely cannot afford to. Every economist in the country has been warning us about the slump in our national productivity. Our economy is crying out for talent, facing critical skills shortages across every sector. According to the Grattan Institute, even a modest 2 per cent increase in women's workforce participation would inject over $11 billion into our nation's economy. Deloitte notes that achieving gender equality would grow our GDP by over $128 billion. CEW research conducted by Dr Angela Jackson shows that if women participated in our workforce at the same rate as men, we would unlock a million additional workers. Addressing this imbalance is not only fair but economically essential. This paradox is clear in our workforce: around 70 per cent of Australia's part-time roles are filled by women, representing a striking underutilisation of decades of investment in women and girl's education and skills. Yet despite this progress, we still have a very long way to go. Australia ranks 34th globally for women's economic participation, despite having one of the world's most educated female populations . Now, more than ever, Australia needs a robust, universal early childhood education system that supports women's workforce participation. Picture Shutterstock Today, that system enables millions of Australian women to engage in the workforce, benefiting not only individuals but entire communities and our economy. This progress wasn't just awarded to us. Legions of women fought for it. The expansion of access to high-quality early childhood education and care changed that, brick by brick, centre by centre. Too many brilliant women stepped back, their talents lost to our workplaces and economy. Women faced impossible choices: abandon careers they'd spent a lifetime developing or cobble together unreliable care arrangements. I remember starting my career when access to high-quality early learning was virtually non-existent. But we must not let this crisis undo what generations of women fought so hard to build. I understand why many in this moment do not feel confident in our early learning system, and it is clear that major reforms are needed. We're already seeing this pattern emerge, with some calling to abandon the early learning system in favour of subsidising parents to stay home, with everyone understanding that this burden would overwhelmingly fall on women. Societal shocks, as author Naomi Klein has noted, have the potential to be used to roll back progress that takes decades to achieve. Australia now stands at a pivotal moment. The justified rage and anguish families feel is a response to a profound betrayal of our collective trust. All other regional websites in your area The digital version of Today's Paper All articles from our website & app Login or signup to continue reading Subscribe now for unlimited access. Like every Australian, I've watched the early learning safety crisis with heartbreak. Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. Access unlimited news content and The Canberra Times app. Premium subscribers also enjoy interactive puzzles and access to the digital version of our print edition - Today's Paper. Login or create a free account to save this to My Saved List Login or create a free account to save this to My Saved List Login or create a free account to save this to My Saved List
