Australian politics live: People with child support debts to be banned from leaving Australia; Canavan defends Brethren church election involvement | Australia news
People with child support debts to be banned from leaving Australia
Tanya Plibersek says the new child support legislation (which my colleague Tom McIlroy brought you a moment ago) will enforce travel bans of child support dodgers – meaning they won’t be able to fly overseas.
Plibersek says there is more than $2bn of unpaid child support in Australia.
She says the system can be used as an “insidious form of domestic violence where you can continue to harass or intimidate your ex”.
She says the new rules will help recover “some” of the outstanding debts.
If people move from the private collection system to the agency collection system, so the child support agency collection system, it’ll give the child support agency the ability to go after that outstanding debt.
We got 200 cases where the debt is more than $150,000, we got one case where the debt is more than $2m.
The next piece of legislation we introduce will actually have transport or travel bans on people who have, outstanding child support debts of more than $10,000, will be automatically stopped from leaving the country and that is a strong incentive for people to pay.
We also investing more in resources from the tax office to go after people who haven’t been lodging tax returns. We know that one of the ways that minimise their child support or avoid paying is by saying I’ve had no income or have had much less income than they’ve actually had.
Key events
‘Don’t send the wrong message’ University vice chancellor’s migration warning
University of Sydney vice chancellor, Mark Scott, has warned the government to be careful in its messaging around migration, and not make international students feel unwelcome in Australia.
The families of international students could be targeted in the cuts which will be unveiled later today.
It’s also probably worth noting that the University of Sydney has the highest number of international students in the country.
Scott says international students contribute to university life and the economy and we should “treat [them] with respect to the mining sector, the agricultural sector, the tourism sector.”
He told RN Breakfast earlier:
We just need to be very sure we’re not sending any sort of message that the best international students from around the world aren’t welcome in Australia, don’t make a powerful contribution to Australia while they’re here, and we want them to be welcome and befriended in this country.
It’s that on top of the political debate, on top of a dramatic increase of visa cost, on top of a dramatic increase of visa rejections, we need to be very sure we’re not sending a message to the world that international students aren’t welcome here. We must welcome them.
Scott says he was once an international student at a university in the US and was allowed to travel with his family, “and if they had not been able to come with me, then I probably wouldn’t have gone to America.”
‘Welcome to politics’: Canavan defends Brethren church involvement in election
Matt Canavan has hit back against calls from Labor for the Coalition to condemn the Plymouth Brethren Christian church, following allegations the group paid far-right individuals to disrupt the Labor campaign.
Canavan claimed it shows Labor “seems to have a problem with people of faith, especially people of faith who involve themselves in politics”.
The Nationals leader tells RN Breakfast that the group has denied the allegations.
They [were] denied. They’re not proven. And I was aghast during the election campaign when the prime minister called a group of Christian people a cult, a group that he’d never met.
I’ve met with them [the church] since those allegations. I was pretty impacted by them. And they’re good people. They get in the community. Now, of course, like any group, some people might do the wrong thing, some might do the right thing. But to just run around allegations like that … the Labor party’s hands aren’t clean here. A lot of the Brethren members did campaign against them. OK, welcome to politics. I don’t condemn people who campaign against me.
Canavan says the allegations should be looked at and investigated but not in the “witch-hunt style process” he claims Labor is running.
Canavan says ‘not an issue’ Coalition is releasing its migration policy after Labor and One Nation
Nationals leader Matt Canavan says it’s not a problem that the Coalition will be the third party to reveal its migration plan, after One Nation revealed its plan on Monday, and Labor unveils its today.
Canavan says One Nation’s policy has no detail and no costings, and doesn’t believe that Labor will be able to hit its own targets.
I don’t see that as an issue given that the election’s not for 18 months. I mean, we can’t obviously implement any of our policies today. It’s also the case that it’s somewhat difficult here to outline plans that we won’t put in plan 18 months because things can change within 18 months.
All we’re going to get today, apparently, is another plan to implement the plan that they put in place to implement the plan that they couldn’t get done in the first place. That needs to come down. The numbers don’t seem to be coming down.
He says the numbers aren’t coming down – they are, but the government has conceded there is still a way to go.
Burke says net overseas migration fell in the last financial year to 301,000, a 45% drop from the post-Covid peak in 2023. But the government under its current projections wants to see it drop down to 225,000 in coming years.
Joyce says Labor’s migration plan almost ‘exact replication’ of One Nation’s
Barnaby Joyce says Labor is copying and pasting One Nation’s homework because the measures we know so far around blocking the families of international students and preventing visa hopping have some similarity to what Pauline Hanson is suggesting.
Speaking to the Today show a little earlier, Joyce says Burke’s last minute cancellation at the press club was “the greatest no-show since Amelia Earhart”.
Joyce says:
[Burke] can’t possibly be about to announce One Nation’s policy. I mean, Tony’s a great guy, right? I like Tony, but honestly, he was the greatest no-show since Amelia Earhart when he didn’t turn up to the Press Club …
What I’ve heard thus far is that it’s an exact replication, but not to the extent of what One Nation is doing.
He says Jim Chalmers will have to come with him for the return – claiming what will be announced today won’t match the economic modelling in the current budget.
Modelling is perhaps a bit of a sore point for Joyce at the moment, after he was asked a serious of questions about whether One Nation had modelled its migration plan and couldn’t come up with a coherent answer (the answer was no).
I will be watching this with absolute fascination and some trepidation, and I’ll be waiting for Jim Chalmers to explain his new budget.
Plibersek troubled by alleged behaviour from Brethren church during election
Tanya Plibersek alleges she saw first-hand members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian church physically intimidating her colleagues during the election campaign.
Two of the most senior members of the church have been compelled to appear before the electoral matters committee. Hundreds of the church’s members volunteered for Liberal members and candidates around the country in 2025.
The church also denied reports it had secretly paid far-right individuals to disrupt the Labor campaign, during the church’s last appearance at the committee.
Plibersek tells RN Breakfast:
I was on polling booths with my colleagues like Sally Sitou. I was out there in Reid with her in those last weeks of the campaign, standing there for hours at a time. She would be surrounded by men a foot taller than her, stopping her physically talking to or giving information to voters.
I would think secretly paying known rightwing figures to disrupt events and pretend that they are just disgruntled citizens having their say is certainly immoral, if it’s not illegal.
And physically intimidating Sally Sitou, who’s a head shorter than me, with big blokes standing around her, physically stopping her talking to voters, I think that’s pretty troubling and it’s certainly not what we want in our democracy.
People with child support debts to be banned from leaving Australia
Tanya Plibersek says the new child support legislation (which my colleague Tom McIlroy brought you a moment ago) will enforce travel bans of child support dodgers – meaning they won’t be able to fly overseas.
Plibersek says there is more than $2bn of unpaid child support in Australia.
She says the system can be used as an “insidious form of domestic violence where you can continue to harass or intimidate your ex”.
She says the new rules will help recover “some” of the outstanding debts.
If people move from the private collection system to the agency collection system, so the child support agency collection system, it’ll give the child support agency the ability to go after that outstanding debt.
We got 200 cases where the debt is more than $150,000, we got one case where the debt is more than $2m.
The next piece of legislation we introduce will actually have transport or travel bans on people who have, outstanding child support debts of more than $10,000, will be automatically stopped from leaving the country and that is a strong incentive for people to pay.
We also investing more in resources from the tax office to go after people who haven’t been lodging tax returns. We know that one of the ways that minimise their child support or avoid paying is by saying I’ve had no income or have had much less income than they’ve actually had.
‘You don’t know that at all’: Plibersek rejects cabinet division over migration
Tanya Plibersek doesn’t want to say much about migration this morning, other than the broad-brush statement that migration is essential to Australia and the government has already brought net migration down significantly from Covid peaks.
The social services minister also doesn’t want to talk about whether there was any internal cabinet division over Tony Burke’s proposed migration changes.
There’s been plenty of reporting out there in recent weeks over division in the cabinet being part of the reason why it’s taken so long for the policy to be announced – it was initially due to be revealed at the National Press Club more than a month ago.
Plibersek tells ABC News Breakfast: don’t believe everything you hear.
You don’t know that at all. That has been reported and you can’t always believe what you read in the newspapers.
I don’t talk about what happened in cabinet but I can say to you that it is a very constructive discussion that focused on the real issues here. Which is making sure that our immigration system is fit for purpose, that it meets the needs of our country, and that – and by the way, that we continue to celebrate the contributions that migrants to this country make today and have made for many, many years.
Asked again whether she’s saying there were no disagreements, Plibersek replies, “I’m not speaking about what happens in Cabinet, I never do.”
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning
Krishani Dhanji here with you for the final sitting day of the fortnight. Thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
And the sitting fortnight is going out with a bang today with the Labor’s long awaited plan finally being unveiled at the press club today.
We have a fair sense of where some of that will land – including a restriction on international students bringing their family with them, and cracking down on “visa-hopping” – and we’ll bring that speech to you live from 12:30pm.
No doubt the Coalition will want the government to go harder and cut more, the Greens will want more compassion and fewer cuts, and everyone’s going to be comparing the plan with One Nation’s.
It’s going to be a big one – let’s get stuck in.
Albanese government to improve safety in child support system
Tom McIlroy
Tanya Plibersek and Katy Gallagher have announced plans to close gaps that have allowed family and domestic violence perpetrators to continue causing harm through the child support system.
The new laws will scrap legal requirements that mean any information provided by one parent be shared with the other parent, stopping situations where sharing that information could put children or a parent at risk.
Families will also be supported to recover more unpaid child support debts when they move into official arrangements, and new rules will be created to remove the harm that can arise from family tax benefit debts caused by child support payers against their former partners.
In a joint statement, the social services minister and the finance minister said:
There is almost $2 billion of unpaid child support in this country.
There are almost 100,000 parents and carers in the child support system who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing family and domestic violence. Australian children deserve better.
This is the first stage of the most significant reforms to child support in decades, helping create a system that is safer, simpler and more effective for Australian families.
Australia breaks into top 10 global gender gap rankings
Ima Caldwell
Australia has broken into the top 10 of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, ranking eighth out of 148 countries – its highest ranking ever.
The 2026 report marks a significant climb for Australia, moving up 35 places from 43rd since the Albanese government took office.
The government credits this historic high to improved political representation (including a majority-female cabinet), expanded paid parental leave, wage increases in female-dominated sectors and new investments in women’s health.
Anthony Albanese said in a statement that the ranking “slipped to an all-time low of 50th under the previous Coalition government” and acknowledged that the work must continue:
The job is not done and we will continue to focus our efforts on lifting wages, ending gender-based violence, increasing female representation in workplaces, investing in women’s health and more.
The minister for women, Katy Gallagher, said the record ranking was “not by accident”, also recognising areas for improvement:
We know there is more work to do across our priorities of ending violence against women, valuing care, improving women’s economic empowerment, improving women’s health outcomes and strengthening women’s leadership and representation – this is just one measure that shows Australia is moving in the right direction.
Tom McIlroy
International student visa changes expected
International students will see some of the biggest changes in the reform of immigration settings.
Last year Australia issued more than 337,000 international student visas, of which about 45,000 went to dependents or family members of the primary applicant. The vast majority of students will now be expected to be required to come alone.
Burke gave a preview in parliament yesterday.
We do need to get net overseas migration down.
We need to make sure that we deal with the numbers overall, and do so in a sensible, a targeted way that provides the easiest pathway through the Australian economy.
Burke’s speech kicks off at 12.30pm today.
Long-anticipated immigration changes drop today
Tom McIlroy
Foreign students will face tough restrictions on the ability to bring family members into Australia under big changes to the country’s immigration system.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, will reveal the changes today at the National Press Club, after plans for a speech more than a month ago were derailed.
Burke’s plan is designed to bring down net overseas migration (Nom) while doing the least damage to the economy.
His speech is titled: “The work of managing the migration program: Who arrives, who stays, who leaves”.
The plan will shift some rules for visa categories away from demand-driven settings, introduced during the Howard government, allowing more control on the numbers of people coming into, and departing, the country.
Labor plans to use legislation to gain more control over arrival numbers but could rely on regulation and directives to departmental officials if it cannot find agreement in parliament.
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
Foreign students will face tough restrictions on the ability to bring family members into Australia under big changes to the country’s immigration system to be announced at the National Press Club this lunchtime by Tony Burke. More details coming up.
