Greens to announce plan to wipe all student debt
Sarah Basford Canales
The Greens will announce its $74bn plan to wipe all student debt as it looks to snatch a seat off Labor in inner-city Melbourne.
The minor party will reveal the proposal in Wills, held by Labor’s Peter Khalil, with their candidate, Samantha Ratnam, who led the party in Victoria for nearly seven years.
Costings from the Parliamentary Budget Office show the policy to wipe all student debt would cost $55bn over the next four years and $74bn over the decade. The Greens estimate this will save someone with a debt of $27,600 about $5,500 a year.
The Greens’ education spokesperson, Mehreen Faruqi, said the policy would make a “real, tangible difference to so many people doing it tough”.
Student debt can’t be fixed because student debt shouldn’t exist. All student debt should be wiped. If Anthony Albanese can go to uni for free, so should everyone else.
It comes as Labor announced last week it would slash HECS debts by 20% if it wins at the next federal election.
The Greens say they would pass any bill to reduce student debts in this term if Labor were to bring the proposal forward.
Key events
Henry Belot
Media watchdog to call for new powers at inquiry
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) will today reiterate its call for more powers to combat misinformation and disinformation on social media.
The communications watchdog believes a code of practice on misinformation and disinformation – which has been signed by Adobe, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Redbubble, TikTok, Twitch and Legitimate – lacks enforcement power.
In a submission to a senate committee, Acma warned:
There is no regulatory backstop to either compel digital platforms to become signatories or hold them accountable if they breach their obligations.
Acma will appear before the parliamentary inquiry today and continue its call for tougher legislation:
To be both effective and enforceable, the code must be supported by key performance indicators linked to code commitments and measurable through high-quality sets of Australian-relevant data. This is essential to hold signatories accountable to their commitments and provide transparency to Australians on the effectiveness of these measures.
Sarah Basford Canales
Dutton to focus election campaign on cost of living and migration
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has flagged his election campaign will focus on cost of living and migration, linking the latter to the release of 224 unlawful non-citizens who had been in indefinite detention.
In a press conference yesterday, Dutton was asked if the Coalition would mirror Donald Trump’s election campaign, which saw him achieve a second term in office last week.
Dutton responded the opposition would run its “own campaign” but flagged some of the issues in the US, such as “migration”, were a focus in Australia too.
The opposition leader turned to the release of hundreds of immigration detainees, known as the NZYQ cohort, following a high court decision in November 2023 that indefinite detention is unlawful. Dutton inaccurately claimed the Albanese government had a choice in their release, and described the entire cohort as “hardened criminals”.
Certainly cost of living, certainly interest rates, certainly migration because the government has released over 200 hardened criminals from immigration detention when they didn’t need to do so... so our country is less safe as a result of the decisions that the Albanese government’s made and we are poorer as a community as well. I think they’re the issues that really will be front of mind for Australians at the next election.
While a number of the non-citizens within the cohort have had serious criminal convictions, some have had their visas cancelled for fraud, “other non-violent offences”, or lower level offences, such as common assaults.
In response to the high court’s ruling last November, Labor and the Coalition passed changes imposing strict conditions, including electronic monitoring and curfews, to those released.
Last week, the high court again ruled against the government’s powers, saying it breached the separation of powers. The judges said the conditions were “a form of extra-judicial collective punishment based on membership of the class”.
The following day, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, made new regulations to regain the power to impose the conditions where someone “poses a substantial risk of seriously harming any part of the Australian community by committing a serious offence”.
Remembrance Day events set to take place across country
Australians will pause for a minute of silence at 11am to honour the thousands who died in military conflicts in commemoration services around the nation.
As AAP reports, a national service will take place at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, where governor-general Sam Mostyn will deliver a commemorative address. After the commemoration, Anthony Albanese and Mostyn will make an announcement about a military honour.
In Sydney, a service at the Martin Place Cenotaph will begin at 10.30am, while the Opera House will be illuminated with images of poppies at dawn and dusk.
RSL Queensland said more than 140 events would take place at sub-branches state-wide, with its official Queensland service taking place at Brisbane’s ANZAC Square from 10.15am.
RSL Western Australia will use the occasion to call for DNA donations to try and help identify unnamed fallen soldiers from the 32nd Battalion that took part in one of World War I’s most devastating battles in July 1916. RSL WA’s official service will be held at the State War Memorial in Kings Park.
Greens to announce plan to wipe all student debt
Sarah Basford Canales
The Greens will announce its $74bn plan to wipe all student debt as it looks to snatch a seat off Labor in inner-city Melbourne.
The minor party will reveal the proposal in Wills, held by Labor’s Peter Khalil, with their candidate, Samantha Ratnam, who led the party in Victoria for nearly seven years.
Costings from the Parliamentary Budget Office show the policy to wipe all student debt would cost $55bn over the next four years and $74bn over the decade. The Greens estimate this will save someone with a debt of $27,600 about $5,500 a year.
The Greens’ education spokesperson, Mehreen Faruqi, said the policy would make a “real, tangible difference to so many people doing it tough”.
Student debt can’t be fixed because student debt shouldn’t exist. All student debt should be wiped. If Anthony Albanese can go to uni for free, so should everyone else.
It comes as Labor announced last week it would slash HECS debts by 20% if it wins at the next federal election.
The Greens say they would pass any bill to reduce student debts in this term if Labor were to bring the proposal forward.
Welcome
Emily Wind
Good morning and welcome back to a new week on the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be taking you through our live coverage this Monday.
Today, the Greens are set to announce its $74bn plan to wipe all student debt as it looks to snatch a seat off Labor in inner-city Melbourne. The minor party will reveal the proposal in Wills, held by Labor’s Peter Khalil, with their candidate Samantha Ratnam, who led the party in Victoria for nearly seven years. Sarah Basford Canales will have all the details soon.
Meanwhile, Australians will pause to honour the thousands who died in military conflicts in commemoration services around the nation. As AAP reports, a national service will take place at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, where governor general Sam Mostyn will deliver a commemorative address.
After the commemoration, Anthony Albanese and Mostyn will make an announcement about a military honour. We’ll bring you more details soon.
As always, if you have any questions, tips or feedback, you can get in touch via X @emilywindwrites or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Let’s get started.
