A bill to cut student debt passes the House of Representatives

SBS Australia

7 days ago

TRANSCRIPT
A bill to cut student debt passes the House of Representatives...
The ACTU warns employers to introduce AI responsibly in the workplace
Australia makes cricket history with eight-match clean sweep of West Indies. A bill to cut university student HECS debts by 20 per cent and reform the debt repayment scheme has passed the House of Representatives with the support of the Opposition. The one-off cut to student debt is set to slash an average of $5500 from the debt of millions of Australians. Despite the Coalition saying during the campaign it would not support the debt cut, new leader Sussan Ley said the opposition would not stand in the way. The proposal was a major Labor election commitment and the first legislation introduced to the new parliament. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has celebrated the move as the bill moves to the Senate. "We are very pleased that the first piece of legislation to pass this house was to pass student debt by 20 per cent. This will cut the debt of three million Australians by an average of $5,500 each. It will make reforming the system to make payments fairer as well, making that long-term difference." Australia's big banks are due to hand back more than $60 million in bank fees while the Commonwealth Bank has opted not to refund $270 million in fees charged to disadvantaged customers. The national corporate regulator, ASIC [[ah-sick]], has issued a reprimand to banks for incorrectly charging customers on Centrelink and Disability Support payments. Westpac and Bendigo Bank have announced they will issue refunds to eligible customers, while CommBank said it will not give back the $270 million it had charged low-income customers since the Royal Commission into bank misconduct six years ago. Betttina Cooper from Mob Strong Debt Help says this is a blow to First Nations people as historically it was the Commonwealth Bank which set up branches in remote communities. "ASIC has released two reports. The banking code has changed. Does it really take a big stick for CBA to do the right thing? Shame on CBA. Just shame! It is clear what they need to do. It is clear from the ASIC report. When will CBA do what's right for its vulnerable customers? Profiteering off your most vulnerable customers is not a good look." The Australian Council of Trade Unions is calling for tougher regulations on the rollout of artificial intelligence in workplaces to protect jobs. At a federal economic reform roundtable next month, the ACTU will call for a new set of A-I implementation agreements that employers must provide to workers. It wants agreements to compel employers to consult their staff before new artificial technology is introduced into workplaces. They say the agreements should include job security guarantees, skills development and retraining, transparency over technology use, privacy and data collection protections. Labor frontbencher Mark Butler didn't comment on the union calls but says employers must introduce AI responsibly. "Like any technology there will be an impact on workplaces. Some of that will be job creation, some of that will impact existing jobs. That's what we've seen through technology for hundreds of years. I encourage employers to do this sensitively and make sure they're taking employees along with them when they think about adopting new technologies. Employers should have been doing that for many many years." The operator of some of Australia's biggest petrol-station chains says new tobacco packaging laws and the black market is behind a 10 per cent drop in convenience sales. Viva Energy, the Geelong refinery owner which operates nearly 1,000 petrol stations, reported $835 million in convenience sales in the six months to June 30, down 10.4 per cent from the previous year. They say the fall was driven by a decline in tobacco sales, which dropped 27 per cent due to new tobacco packaging laws taking effect and the continued growth in the illicit tobacco trade. The new packaging laws require health warnings printed on every cigarette, while taxes of more than $1.30 per cigarette have been blamed for a flourishing black market. Australia have created a slice of cricket history after completing an eight-match clean sweep of their West Indies tour with a three-wicket win in the fifth and final T-20 international in St Kitts. After bowling the home team out for just 170, their lowest score of the five-match T-20-I series, Australia reached their target with three overs to spare, making 7-173 off 17 overs. Despite the absence of pace trio Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc and star batter Travis Head, Australia became the first team to beat another I-C-C full member 5-0 in a T20-I series. Captain Mitchell Marsh says he wasn't expecting a clean sweep but he's proud of the team.
"To be honest I probably didn't expect five-nil at the start of the series but I think, across the board, we played some fantastic cricket. I certainly knew that no Australian team had done it. As a group coming together, a lot of us haven't played that much together with some young guys coming in so it'll be something that we're very proud of."