Australian news and politics live: Legislation introduced for childcare safety reforms and HECS debt changes
Indonesia will drop tariffs to zero on more than 99 per cent of its trade with the United States and will also eliminate all non-tariff barriers for American goods in a deal that cuts threatened US tariffs on Indonesian products to 19 per cent from an initial 32 per cent.
A senior Trump administration official said Indonesia will immediately drop its plans to levy tariffs on internet data flows and will support renewal of a longstanding World Trade Organization moratorium on e-commerce duties, the official told reporters on a conference call held a week after the deal was first announced on July 15.
Indonesia also will remove recently enacted pre-shipment inspection and verifications of US exports, which have posed problems for US agricultural exports and contributed to a growing U.S. farm trade deficit, the official said.
In a win for US automakers, the official said that Indonesia has agreed to accept US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for vehicles exported from the United States to the growing country of 280 million people.
Indonesia also has agreed to remove export restrictions on critical minerals and remove local content requirements products using these commodities shipped to the US.
- via Reuters
Students and graduates will soon see a reduction in their HECS debts and save hundreds of dollars a year.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare will introduce legislation to slash student debt by 20 per cent and increase the income that graduates need to earn before minimum repayments kick in.
It's the first bill that the Albanese government will put before parliament at the start of its second term.
People earning between $60,000 and $180,000 will save hundreds of dollars each year under the changes.
Someone on $70,000 will save the most, $1300 a year, on minimum repayments due to an increase to the thresholds at which the debts must be paid back.
The US Justice Department has asked lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell if she would be willing to speak with prosecutors, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche says he expects to meet with her in the coming days.
The decision to request a meeting with Maxwell comes as Attorney General Pam Bondi has faced mounting pressure from US President Donald Trump's supporters to release additional materials related to Epstein, who died in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
US President Donald Trump has now weighed in, after being asked about it in the Oval Office he said: 'I don't know about it, but I think it's something that would be, sounds appropriate.'
Read more.
The Federal Government is introducing legislation today to strip funding from childcare centres that fail to meet safety standards.
This move comes as Parliament resumes sitting and aims to fast-track child protection reforms amid growing concerns about the security of CCTV plans in centres nationwide.
It follows allegations that a 26-year-old Melbourne childcare worker has been charged with over 70 offenses, including sexual abuse.
'The work on this is being undertaken every day since these allegations emerged,' Housing minister Clare O'Neil told Sunrise on Wednesday morning.
'The working with children checks are of course a part of this and the Attorneys-General across the country are working together in a way that's actually really unusual for the states and the Commonwealth to make sure that we fast-track this. So that meeting next month will be to finalise some of that work.
'I've got a daughter who's in childcare at the moment. I'm desperately about, this not just as a politician but as a parent. I'm really pleased to see the Education Minister bringing forward some legislation today that is going to have incredibly harsh repercussions for childcare centres that do not properly protect our children.'
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Ukraine says these terms are tantamount to asking it to capitulate. US President Donald Trump has departed Washington aboard Air Force One to head to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for discussions about a possible ceasefire deal for Ukraine. Trump was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, as well as other top aides, the White House said on Friday. "HIGH STAKES!!!" Trump wrote on his social media platform before leaving the White House for a trip the US sees as a possible way to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was not invited to the talks, and his European allies fear Trump might sell out Ukraine by essentially freezing the conflict and recognising - if only informally - Russian control over one-fifth of Ukraine. Both Trump and Putin are seeking wins from their first face-to-face talks since Trump returned to the White House. Trump, who casts the war as a "bloodbath" fraught with escalatory risk, is pressing for a truce in the three-and-a-half-year-old war that would bolster his credentials as worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. For Putin, the summit is already a big win as he can use it to say that years of Western attempts to isolate Russia have unravelled and that Moscow has retaken its rightful place at the top table of international diplomacy. The summit, the first between a US and Russian leader since 2021, will begin at 11am on Friday (5am on Saturday AEST) at a Cold War-era air force base. Trump, who once said he would end Russia's war in Ukraine within 24 hours, conceded on Thursday it had proven a tougher nut to crack than he had thought. He said if Friday's talks went well, quickly setting up a subsequent three-way summit with Zelenskiy would be even more important than his encounter with Putin. A source acquainted with Kremlin thinking said there were signs Moscow could be ready to strike a compromise on Ukraine given Putin understood Russia's economic vulnerability and costs of continuing the war. Ukraine and its European allies were heartened by a call on Wednesday in which they said Trump had agreed Ukraine must be involved in any talks about ceding land. Zelenskiy said Trump had also supported the idea of security guarantees for Kyiv. Russia, whose war economy is showing signs of strain, is vulnerable to additional US sanctions - and Trump has threatened tariffs on buyers of Russian crude, primarily China and India. The day before the summit, Putin held out the prospect of something else he knows Trump wants - a new nuclear arms control agreement to replace the last surviving one, which is due to expire in February 2026. Trump said on the eve of the summit that he thought Putin would do a deal on Ukraine, but he has blown hot and cold on the chances of a breakthrough. Putin has so far voiced stringent conditions for a full ceasefire, but one compromise could be a truce in the air war. Putin has said he is open to a ceasefire but has repeatedly said the issues of verification need to be sorted out first. Zelenskiy has accused Putin of playing for time to avoid US secondary sanctions and has ruled out formally handing Moscow any territory. Trump has said land transfers could be a possible way of breaking the logjam. Beyond territory, Ukraine has been clear in talks with Western allies that it needs a security guarantee backed by Washington. Putin in 2024 stated his demands for stopping the war - the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the parts of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions that they still control, an area now of about 21,000 sq km. Putin also said Kyiv would have to officially notify Moscow that it was abandoning its plans to join NATO, and it intended to remain neutral and non-aligned. Ukraine says these terms are tantamount to asking it to capitulate. US President Donald Trump has departed Washington aboard Air Force One to head to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for discussions about a possible ceasefire deal for Ukraine. Trump was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, as well as other top aides, the White House said on Friday. "HIGH STAKES!!!" Trump wrote on his social media platform before leaving the White House for a trip the US sees as a possible way to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was not invited to the talks, and his European allies fear Trump might sell out Ukraine by essentially freezing the conflict and recognising - if only informally - Russian control over one-fifth of Ukraine. Both Trump and Putin are seeking wins from their first face-to-face talks since Trump returned to the White House. Trump, who casts the war as a "bloodbath" fraught with escalatory risk, is pressing for a truce in the three-and-a-half-year-old war that would bolster his credentials as worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. For Putin, the summit is already a big win as he can use it to say that years of Western attempts to isolate Russia have unravelled and that Moscow has retaken its rightful place at the top table of international diplomacy. The summit, the first between a US and Russian leader since 2021, will begin at 11am on Friday (5am on Saturday AEST) at a Cold War-era air force base. Trump, who once said he would end Russia's war in Ukraine within 24 hours, conceded on Thursday it had proven a tougher nut to crack than he had thought. He said if Friday's talks went well, quickly setting up a subsequent three-way summit with Zelenskiy would be even more important than his encounter with Putin. A source acquainted with Kremlin thinking said there were signs Moscow could be ready to strike a compromise on Ukraine given Putin understood Russia's economic vulnerability and costs of continuing the war. Ukraine and its European allies were heartened by a call on Wednesday in which they said Trump had agreed Ukraine must be involved in any talks about ceding land. Zelenskiy said Trump had also supported the idea of security guarantees for Kyiv. Russia, whose war economy is showing signs of strain, is vulnerable to additional US sanctions - and Trump has threatened tariffs on buyers of Russian crude, primarily China and India. The day before the summit, Putin held out the prospect of something else he knows Trump wants - a new nuclear arms control agreement to replace the last surviving one, which is due to expire in February 2026. Trump said on the eve of the summit that he thought Putin would do a deal on Ukraine, but he has blown hot and cold on the chances of a breakthrough. Putin has so far voiced stringent conditions for a full ceasefire, but one compromise could be a truce in the air war. Putin has said he is open to a ceasefire but has repeatedly said the issues of verification need to be sorted out first. Zelenskiy has accused Putin of playing for time to avoid US secondary sanctions and has ruled out formally handing Moscow any territory. Trump has said land transfers could be a possible way of breaking the logjam. Beyond territory, Ukraine has been clear in talks with Western allies that it needs a security guarantee backed by Washington. Putin in 2024 stated his demands for stopping the war - the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the parts of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions that they still control, an area now of about 21,000 sq km. Putin also said Kyiv would have to officially notify Moscow that it was abandoning its plans to join NATO, and it intended to remain neutral and non-aligned. Ukraine says these terms are tantamount to asking it to capitulate. US President Donald Trump has departed Washington aboard Air Force One to head to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for discussions about a possible ceasefire deal for Ukraine. Trump was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, as well as other top aides, the White House said on Friday. "HIGH STAKES!!!" Trump wrote on his social media platform before leaving the White House for a trip the US sees as a possible way to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was not invited to the talks, and his European allies fear Trump might sell out Ukraine by essentially freezing the conflict and recognising - if only informally - Russian control over one-fifth of Ukraine. Both Trump and Putin are seeking wins from their first face-to-face talks since Trump returned to the White House. Trump, who casts the war as a "bloodbath" fraught with escalatory risk, is pressing for a truce in the three-and-a-half-year-old war that would bolster his credentials as worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. For Putin, the summit is already a big win as he can use it to say that years of Western attempts to isolate Russia have unravelled and that Moscow has retaken its rightful place at the top table of international diplomacy. The summit, the first between a US and Russian leader since 2021, will begin at 11am on Friday (5am on Saturday AEST) at a Cold War-era air force base. Trump, who once said he would end Russia's war in Ukraine within 24 hours, conceded on Thursday it had proven a tougher nut to crack than he had thought. He said if Friday's talks went well, quickly setting up a subsequent three-way summit with Zelenskiy would be even more important than his encounter with Putin. A source acquainted with Kremlin thinking said there were signs Moscow could be ready to strike a compromise on Ukraine given Putin understood Russia's economic vulnerability and costs of continuing the war. Ukraine and its European allies were heartened by a call on Wednesday in which they said Trump had agreed Ukraine must be involved in any talks about ceding land. Zelenskiy said Trump had also supported the idea of security guarantees for Kyiv. Russia, whose war economy is showing signs of strain, is vulnerable to additional US sanctions - and Trump has threatened tariffs on buyers of Russian crude, primarily China and India. The day before the summit, Putin held out the prospect of something else he knows Trump wants - a new nuclear arms control agreement to replace the last surviving one, which is due to expire in February 2026. Trump said on the eve of the summit that he thought Putin would do a deal on Ukraine, but he has blown hot and cold on the chances of a breakthrough. Putin has so far voiced stringent conditions for a full ceasefire, but one compromise could be a truce in the air war. Putin has said he is open to a ceasefire but has repeatedly said the issues of verification need to be sorted out first. Zelenskiy has accused Putin of playing for time to avoid US secondary sanctions and has ruled out formally handing Moscow any territory. Trump has said land transfers could be a possible way of breaking the logjam. Beyond territory, Ukraine has been clear in talks with Western allies that it needs a security guarantee backed by Washington. Putin in 2024 stated his demands for stopping the war - the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the parts of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions that they still control, an area now of about 21,000 sq km. Putin also said Kyiv would have to officially notify Moscow that it was abandoning its plans to join NATO, and it intended to remain neutral and non-aligned. Ukraine says these terms are tantamount to asking it to capitulate.
