Australia lifts biosecurity controls on US beef imports
Published 24 July 2025, 9:20 am
The White House has trumpeted Australia's decision to relax restrictions on US beef imports as an example of the US making 'Agriculture Great Again'. The Australian government is also under pressure to explain a lack of transparency over a major payment to the US for AUKUS amid the ongoing trade negotiations.
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SBS Australia
15 minutes ago
- SBS Australia
'It's a long game': International student cap increase welcomed, despite housing caveat
The addition of 25,000 student enrolments for next year has been welcomed by the university sector, despite questions about how to unlock the placements. On Monday, Education Minister Jason Clare announced a National Planning Level of 295,000 international student places for 2026 to manage growth in a "sustainable" way. The government will issue a new direction for the changes, replacing Ministerial Direction 111, which acted as a de facto cap and enabled it to reduce numbers by slowing visa processing and assigning quotas for international students to each university. Clare announced two caveats for universities to gain additional placements: student housing and a focus on Southeast Asian neighbours. Education Minister Jason Clare has increased international university numbers by 9 per cent for 2026. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA), welcomed the 9 per cent increase but highlighted that the levels were still lower than during the pandemic. "Any increase in the enrolment figures from the government is very welcome ... however, it's patchy," he told SBS News. "Our English language colleges are collapsing as we speak because of the combination of high student visa fees and just a concern that the future for Australian international education is not fantastic." Regional Universities Australia CEO Alec Webb reacted to the news with "positivity", praising the fact that "no university will go backwards in 2026". "It definitely signals that Australia is still open for business, and Australia should still be a destination that is being considered for prospective international students," Webb told SBS News. New housing critical to extra placements Universities will have to demonstrate stronger engagement with Southeast Asia and progress in providing secure student accommodation for both local and international students in order to apply for an increase in their allocation. While Honeywood encouraged the pivot to closer neighbours such as Thailand and Indonesia — "great student source markets" — he expressed concern about housing backlogs. "It's taking purpose-built student accommodation companies anything up to three years to get a project approved and commence construction. So it's a long game," he said. It's a concern also expressed by Webb, who hopes universities will get clarity around housing expectations soon, as well as more information about how the 25,000 placements will be split between metro and regional universities. "Obviously, that can't be a new site build, there is an incredible amount of delay and lag associated with not only obtaining the planning permissions, but also with the actual construction itself," he said. "So we're very keen to work with the department and the government to better understand what the expectation is in regards to securing the supply of housing." SBS News has contacted Clare for comment. The focus on housing reflects the intersection between education and migration, a point exacerbated during the federal election campaign. Australia 'the least worst' option The sector has repeatedly raised concerns that the ongoing debate about international student numbers is deterring prospective students from choosing Australia, delivering a blow to the $34 billion a year industry. However, Honeywood says Australia can capitalise on recent disruption to the global market caused by Donald Trump's presidency in the United States. "Australia's been very fortunate that other countries we compete against, particularly Canada, Donald Trump's USA now and the UK are also winding back on international student recruitment," he said. "And therefore when students are thinking which country to go and study at, they're obviously seeing that Australia is in many cases the least worst when it comes to their ability to access education." From tariffs to university education, experts argue that President Donald Trumphas created global uncertainty that Australia can capitalise off. Source: AP / Evan Vucci This week's announcement outlines capacity for 2026 ahead of new legislation, subject to passing, which will establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. The body will oversee student caps and university allocations, balancing which courses and skills are needed and hopes to provide stability to the sector from 2027.
ABC News
15 minutes ago
- ABC News
Man who threatened politicians online long sought care for autism, court told
A man who bombarded politicians with "extraordinary" threats and antisemitic messages was desperate for help and support for autism, his lawyers say. The Melbourne man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, formally pleaded guilty to sending threats to federal Liberal MP Julian Leeser and Victorian Labor MP Gabrielle Williams. The 33-year-old was charged after his home was raided by counterterrorism officers from the Australian Federal Police's (AFP) Special Operation Avalite on February 6. Police alleged he sent death threats and antisemitic messages to Mr Leeser, who is Jewish and represents the seat of Berowra in northern Sydney. The 33-year-old also twice sent "a threatening email via an online contact form" to Ms Williams, Victoria's transport minister, according to charge sheets. The incidents took place between January 13 and 31. On Tuesday, the man faced the Assessment and Referral Court in Melbourne, a jurisdiction of the magistrates' court that sees people who have underlying factors that contribute to their offending behaviours, such as autism. Details of the man's offending were not aired before Magistrate Vincent Caltabiano, however earlier this year another magistrate, Brett Sonnet, described the messages sent to the politicians as "extraordinary communications". On Tuesday, the court heard the man had agreed to a support plan and had been attending weekly appointments. "It's stuff I've needed for years," he told Magistrate Caltabiano. "It's bizarre it had to come this far. "Even if I do work, I can't afford rent and bills and a psychologist and food." Defence lawyer Jackson McLeod said his client had been "banging his head against a brick wall" trying to get support. "In a sense, it's coming too late," Mr McLeod said. Magistrate Caltabiano, who is yet to sentence the man, extended his bail until September. The offices of Mr Leeser and Ms Williams have been contacted for comment. During Tuesday's hearing, the man was repeatedly told by the magistrate to mind his language. While leaving the court precinct, he stuck his middle finger up at reporters and swore at them. In April, the man's legal team told the court he had been diagnosed with autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Autism is a neurodevelopmental disability that affects the way people communicate and interact with others. Amaze, the Victorian peak body for people with autism, said at least one per cent of the population lives with the disorder. Previously, the man's legal team successfully applied for a suppression order preventing publication of his name until the end of the case, arguing his mental health would be in danger if his name was released to the media. During April's hearing, Magistrate Sonnet told the man that the suppression order would eventually be lifted. "These types of offences are becoming more prevalent and they're not uncommon," he said. "Threats and these types of communications are often received by politicians." The AFP said threats increased by 42 per cent in 2023-24 on the previous year, with more than 1000 reports of nuisance, harassment, and threatening communications. In a submission to the federal government last year, Amaze's chief executive David Tonge said there was evidence problematic internet use may be more prevalent in autistic people, but more research was needed. "There is also evidence that neurodivergent young people, including autistic young people, may be more involved in cyberbullying (as victims and perpetrators) compared to their typically developing peers," he wrote. "While best practice is yet to be established on how to best protect autistic people online, a multifaceted approach is clearly required. "It must include targeted information and resources for autistic people and their parents and carers (and for students and their teachers), as well as online safety mechanisms and regulatory measures."
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Australia's housing market would crash if these factors aligned
An Australian property market crash may be laughable, but it's conceivable. Housing is politically sensitive because access to it influences our lives enormously. The Albanese government is attempting to ramp-up housing supply, and is offering shared equity schemes to make housing more affordable. "That's part of the issue is politically it is very difficult to introduce [new] big bang policies that may actually have some sort of impact on house prices because a lot of people are going lose out," Ben Phillips, an associate professor from ANU's Centre for Social Policy Research, says. A property price crash, of course, would make many millions of homes more affordable. But is that realistic, or even possible? Australian property prices have faced three major speed bumps over the past four decades. The share market crashed in October 1987, leading to an economic downturn, which saw the unemployment rate rise to 10.8 per cent. It hurt asset prices including property. Australia's two largest cities saw the biggest falls, with house prices falling 10 per cent in Melbourne, and roughly 9 per cent in Sydney between 1989 and 1991. In the global financial crisis of 2008, Australia's median property price fell by around 8.5 per cent over an 11-month period, according to CoreLogic. The COVID-19 pandemic, decades later, saw the unemployment rate reach 7.4 per cent in July 2020. Phillips says that "didn't really have much impact". What would likely lead to a property market correction, and potentially a crash, analysts say, is a spike in Australia's unemployment rate. The latest official data from the US shows a shock slowdown in American bosses hiring new candidates. A spike in the unemployment rate here in Australian is not inconceivable. "I think you'd need to have some sort of an event — and I don't quite know what that would be — that would lead to a lot of people losing their jobs, who are professionals and who own houses," Phillips says. Independent economist Saul Eslake has a clearer picture of what that "event" would look like. "So if, for example, Australia were to be hit by some external shock emanating, for example, from the United States or China, that prompted unemployment to rise significantly," Eslake says. Cotality's head of research, Eliza Owen, agrees. "So the unemployment rate is probably the thing that's holding [the property market] together," Owen says. "If we saw a big blowout in the unemployment rate, that's when mortgage serviceability becomes less stable, less certain. "You might have more forced sales and that would add to supply and contribute to a blowout in falling home values." While not putting any numbers around what would cause an Australian property market crash she says: "It would have to be a combination of demand shock and a large increase in unemployment." "So that probably comes from a severe economic downturn." Eslake adds that a combination of interest rate hikes and a severe cut to the migration intake would be necessary for a "demand shock" to the property market. The bottom line is that any economic or financial event would need to be deep and long-lasting, economists say, to produce a property market correction or crash. But Phillips notes that many home owners are well ahead in their mortgage repayments and have managed their finances to help ride out a financial storm. "Most people in Australia are pretty wealthy and if you're a home owner, and those are most of the people who are buying and selling houses are actually home owners — they have large amounts of equity, they've got large redraw facilities to survive during any sort of challenging financial times," he says. Phillips says this, and a chronic shortage of housing, has made Australia's housing market virtually indestructible. "And I think particularly through an environment where you've got quite low interest rates and you've got effectively a fairly fixed level of housing supply and certainly in the short term, that's probably why it's then house prices stay as strong as they have or increase increased quite strongly." Eslake argues the government and the Reserve Bank stand at the ready to respond to any economic event which poses a threat to financial markets. "I think the Reserve Bank would cut interest rates significantly," he says. In addition, he argues, the big four banks, in the event of a big endogenous economic shock, would fall over themselves to help mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure. "Most banks will, if a mortgage customer loses his or her job, comes forward quickly enough and the bank's persuaded that there's a reasonable prospect that that person will find a job in the next six months, [the bank will] go to considerable lengths to help those customers," Eslake says. "The banks certainly don't like to have mortgagee and possession signs going up in front of their customers houses." So, is a property market crash possible? Of course. Is a correction more realistic? Yes. But you would need some combination of a drastic cut to migration, interest rate hikes, and a significant and long-term jump in white-collar unemployment with little government support. It's a tall order.
