Australia news LIVE: Nation’s population on track to reach 27 million as migrant numbers grow; Assange lawyers reject reports of plea deal

Former prime minister Paul Keating has been seen leaving the Chinese consulate in Sydney after meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi.

Keating, who has urged Australians not to be alarmed by China’s rise to superpower status, arrived at the consulate accompanied by China’s ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian and remained for around an hour.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson described the meeting as a “calculated humiliation” of the Albanese government by the Chinese government given Keating’s past strident criticisms of Foreign Minister Penny Wong and the AUKUS pact.

“It’s not the act of a friendly nation, it’s the act of a nation which is trying to, as it has for many years, coerce and pressure us to do things which are against our national interests and consistent with theirs,” Paterson told Sky News.

Keating said in a statement issued on Monday that it was unremarkable that he would meet with a visiting foreign minister.

The former Labor leader said he had “strongly supported” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s desire “to re-anchor Australian foreign policy in the region”.

He added that he had supported Foreign Minister Penny Wong “in her attempts to lower the loud hailer and ‘stabilise’ relations with China”.

“And, given the chance, I will be emphasising these points to Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi,” Keating said.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said he was unsurprised by the meeting, saying: “Former prime minister Keating is deeply respected across Asia as the man who first pointed out that Australia would seek its security in Asia, not from Asia.”

We don’t often talk about unemployment in trend terms, but it’s worth mentioning today.

In seasonally adjusted terms, unemployment fell by quite a lot, from 4.1 per cent to 3.7 per cent.

This data is important for the Reserve Bank’s next board meeting in May, and could signal that any interest rate cuts are further away.

But in trend terms, the unemployment rate didn’t move, staying at 3.8 per cent for the sixth month in a row.

The trend data smooths out monthly irregularities, and those figures show that the employment-to-population ratio remained at 64.1 per cent for the third month, and the participation rate fell by less than 0.1 percentage points to 66.7 per cent.

In fact the Australian Bureau of Statistics pointed out that the participation rate has been between 6.66 and 66.7 per cent for the last year, while the employment-to-population ratio has bumped between 64.1 and 64.2 per cent for the last 20 months.

“In trend terms, the growth rate in employment has slowed since March 2023. The growth rate in hours worked has also slowed since September 2022 and has been negative since July 2023,” ABS head of Labour Statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.

“However, it’s important to remember that this underlying slowdown in growth rates that we’re seeing in the trend data follows a particularly tight labour market during 2022-23.”

The Reserve Bank board will look at all the figures, including the trend, when they decide the next interest rate move.

In the Victorian state parliament, the privileges committee will investigate alleged contempt of parliament after John Pesutto was sought to be served with defamation proceedings within the precinct yesterday.

Pesutto is facing three defamation cases in the Federal Court from crossbench MP Moira Deeming (who was removed from the parliamentary Liberal Party last year), British anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, and Melbourne woman Angie Jones.

Jones’ case was served on Pesutto through his lawyers yesterday by email, the opposition says.

But the lower house this morning heard that a woman, Louise Carrigg, also brought the documents to him within the parliamentary precinct.

Manager of opposition business, James Newbury, told parliament that Pesutto believed this was a deliberate attempt to have television crews film him being served in front of assembled media.

Newbury’s complaint to the privileges’ committee, to investigate whether there had been a contempt of parliament, was carried by the lower house.

“The member for Hawthorn [Pesutto] therefore requests the privileges committee consider the question of the following: Whether visitors obstructing a member going about his or her parliamentary activities within the parliamentary precinct is a contempt of the parliament; a member or staff member employed by the parliament signing in a visitor for that purpose is a contempt,” Newbury told the parliament.

“It was therefore a stunt as part of the ongoing and highly publicised legal actions of Ms Angie Jones, Ms Kellie-Jay Keen, and Ms Deeming of the [upper house]. The member for Hawthorn is concerned that the events of Wednesday constitute a contempt of parliament and raise serious concerns about security for all members of parliament, staff and visitors who work and attend the parliamentary precinct.”

Despite believing Pesutto was not legally served by Carrigg in parliament, Newbury also asked the committee to consider whether members are being protected from being served legal documents at work in the parliamentary precinct, and whether that extends to electorate offices.

He said Deeming’s electorate officer was with Carrigg within the precinct that morning.

Carrigg had joined Deeming, Keen-Minshull and Jones on the steps of parliament for the Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis a year ago, Newbury said.

Contacted by The Age, Deeming said any suggestion her electorate officer signed Carrigg into parliament on Wednesday was false.

In a statement, Katherine Deves, acting for Jones from Alexander Rashidi Lawyers, said the firm was forced to serve Pesutto at parliament.

“This firm sought acceptance from Mr Pesutto’s solicitors that they were instructed to accept service. Despite seeking that confirmation on numerous occasions, we did not receive a response. We then attended to personal service, Ms Jones is a pensioner and asked a friend of hers, Ms Louise Carrigg, to undertake service of process for Ms Jones and Ms Keen so that Mr Pesutto was not served twice. As we do not have Mr Pesutto’s personal address, we could only undertake to serve him in his place of work.”

Australia’s population is on track to soon reach 27 million after another large increase in net overseas migration and a lift in natural population growth.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday reported the country added 172,700 people in the September quarter of 2023, taking the total population to 26.82 million.

Over the past year, the country’s population has increased by a record 659,800 or 2.5 per cent

Net overseas migration was 145,200 in the quarter, slightly down on government expectations but still the second-largest quarterly jump on record. Over the past year, net overseas has added 548,00 people to the country.

Every state and territory had an increase in population. Victoria added 192,700 people over the past year, taking that state’s population to 6.87 million while NSW added 186,100 with its population now almost 8.4 million.

The fastest growth rate was in Western Australia, up by 3.3 per cent. Its population lifted by 93,600.

The bureau’s head of demography, Beidar Cho, said net overseas migration accounted for 83 per cent of annual population growth.

“Net overseas migration grew by 60 per cent compared with the previous year, driven by an increase in overseas migration arrivals (up 34 per cent), predominantly on a temporary visa for work or study,” she said.

Over the year, almost 766,000 migrants come to the country while 217,000 people departed Australia.

In breaking news, the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 3.7 per cent in February, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

About 116,000 gained jobs in February, while the number of unemployed people rose by 52,000.

ABS head of Labour Statistics Bjorn Jarvis said while the employment-to-population ratio and participation rate both rose slightly in February, they remain below November’s peaks.

There was a big increase in hours worked in February, which is up by 2.8 per cent. Jarvis said that was as a result of more people starting or returning to work after the summer break.

Turning to questions, UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was questioned about Britain’s submarine industry and whether it would have the capacity to build Australia’s submarines under the AUKUS agreement.

Before answering the question, Shapps asked what organisation the journalist was from.

When he was told it was The Australian, Shapps responded: “Should definitely be working on Fleet Street. It’s spot-on British attack line.”

But he said after the Berlin Wall fell defence spending fell, in the UK and elsewhere.

“You can’t carry on doing that. We recognised that a number of years ago and we have been increasing our defence budget,” he told reporters.

“We always stayed about the 2 per cent for NATO, which was always the figure. We stayed about that, but we are now committed to raising it to 2.5 per cent, as time allows, and we’re on the second half of that. ”

“So we have started to recapitalise. We are recapitalising … on submarine production in a very big way.”

He said it was fair to look at events in the past, but in the future AUKUS was “a national endeavour that is important for us to deliver”.

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps says it is extraordinary the UK and Australia did not already have a defence co-operation treaty in place, saying the two countries could not be more close.

“Our view and world outlook is very, very similar. Our understanding of the world order is almost identical and the need to act together is never more pressing than it is today,” he said.

“I think the biggest threat that the world faces today is a sense of attention deficit from countries that believe in freedom and democracy and are prepared; therefore, we must be prepared.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles is speaking in Canberra, after he and his British counterpart Grant Shapps officially signed a defence and security cooperation agreement.

The pact includes a status of forces agreement, which makes it easier for “respective forces to operate together in each other’s countries”.

Marles told reporters it reflects a relationship which had become much more strategic.

“It does reflect a relationship which has become much more strategic, a relationship which has a much bigger national security dimension. To that end, the UK has a much greater presence in the Indo-Pacific than we have seen in a very long time.

“Today we also announce that Australia will participate in the Drone Coalition which is being led by both the United Kingdom and Latvia. This is a really important opportunity for us to continue making our contribution to the effort to have Ukraine stay the course and be able to resolve this conflict on its terms.”

Australia’s corporate regulator has a simple message for the nation’s directors: complying with a myriad set of laws are not as arduous as it may seem.

Australian Securities and Investment Commission chair Joe Longo said while it may seem that being a director in today’s world is like Sisyphus in the ancient Greek myth – forever pushing a boulder up the hill, only for it to roll back down again each time it seems the task is complete – that was not the reality.

“History tells us that it’s the directors who don’t employ curiosity and judgement, who don’t apply themselves to asking questions about their business, who are at risk of not understanding the risks of that business. And if you don’t understand the foreseeable risks, that’s when you run into trouble,” Longo said.

“If, on the other hand, you keep asking the right questions, do all you can to understand your business and act accordingly, you have a reasonable likelihood of compliance. You can not only comply, but thrive.”

Longo made the comments on the second day of an Australian Institute of Company Director’s event in Melbourne.

He said compliance with regulation, such as cyber preparedness and climate change reporting, would lead to better business.

Coalition spokesman for home affairs James Paterson has accused former prime minister Paul Keating of being unprofessional in the lead up to his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Earlier this week, Keating confirmed he accepted a meeting with the Chinese foreign minister and there was nothing unusual about that.

Speaking on Sky News, Paterson slammed Keating for his conduct and commentary surrounding China.

“Paul Keating is Australia’s most prominent critic of AUKUS. Paul Keating is Australia’s most prominent advocate of a closer relationship with China, he is the most prominent defence of the Chinese government when it comes to their human rights abuses and other activities,” Paterson said.

“He has been incredibly unprofessional and undiplomatic in the way in which he has commented about the foreign minister in particular … so, this is, make no mistake, something which is deeply unwelcome here in Canberra in the Labor Party, but none of them have had the courage to say that publicly.”