Australia news LIVE: Colleges told to stop recruiting fake overseas students; RBA holds rates steady

Anthony Albanese will commit $566 million to a new program to search for mining deposits in what he is calling a “new era of mineral exploration” to find raw materials for global markets.

The prime minister plans to announce the spending today in remarks that strongly backs the mining industry and emphasises the role of gas in the transition to renewables.

“Gas is playing an important role in firming and energy security, as our economy transitions,” Albanese says in a draft of the speech, which was released to the media ahead of delivery.

While he does not elaborate on that point in the draft, the message comes at a time when Western Australian gas company Woodside is facing strong opposition to the development of the Scarborough gas field off the state’s coast.

Another gas company, Santos, faces objections to its Barossa gas field off the coast of the Northern Territory.

Albanese is planning to set out the plan at a speech in Perth today, after flying west from Queensland, where he attended Beef Week in Rockhampton on Tuesday.

Labor won crucial seats in WA at the last election but its primary vote has since fallen in that state in the Resolve Political Monitor, raising doubts about whether Labor can retain its majority in parliament.

“Today I announce that next week’s budget will invest in a new era of mineral exploration,” Albanese says in the draft speech.

“We will fund the first comprehensive map of what’s under Australia’s soil – and our seabed. Meaning we can pinpoint the new deposits of critical minerals and strategic materials we need for clean energy and its technology. As well as traditional minerals like iron ore and gold. And potential storage sites for hydrogen.”

The funding for the plan will start on July 1 and continue for a decade.

The parents of two Australian brothers shot dead in Mexico have spoken publicly for the first time, saying from the US it’s time to bring their sons home.

Debra and Martin Robinson have urged people to hold their loved ones closer, following the tragic murder of their sons Callum, 33, and Jake, 30.

The Robinson brothers were on a surfing trip with American friend Carter Rhoad, 30, when they were allegedly killed by Mexican nationals attempting to steal parts of their ute.

Debra and Martin Robinson travelled from Western Australia to Mexico on Friday, where they identified the bodies of their two sons this week.

“Now it’s time to bring them home to families and friends and the ocean waves in Australia,” Debra said.

“Please live bigger, shine brighter and love harder.”

Here’s the latest on this tragic news.

Building workers will be promised a $90.6 million package in next week’s federal budget to boost the labour supply in the construction sector, in another federal move to reach an ambitious target to build more homes.

The federal government will put the funds towards more fee-free TAFE courses and a bigger apprenticeship program to start in January, saying this will help it achieve its goal of adding 1.2 million homes over the next five years.

Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor and Housing Minister Julie Collins will announce the funding this morning, in the latest policy to be “dropped” to the media ahead of the budget next week.

One part of the plan offers $62.4 million to deliver 15,000 places at TAFE colleges over two years from January without charging student fees.

A second part commits $26.4 million to fund 5,000 places in pre-apprenticeship programs over the same two years. A third element puts $1.8 million toward skills assessments for 1,900 potential migrants to work in construction and housing.

“This is a great opportunity for people to gain a trade whilst accessing government incentives and reduce cost of living pressures through more affordable housing,” O’Connor says in a statement.

Collins says the policy will make more skilled workers available to build more homes.

The fee-free TAFE policy, a big Labor commitment at the last election, has supported about 355,000 student enrolments to the end of last year.

This included 24,000 construction course enrolments, of which 3,000 were from women. The new spending in the budget is expected to add to that total.

The Coalition is demanding the government rein in the toughest conditions of its deportation bill by beefing up safeguards for families visiting from certain nations and foreigners resisting deportation.

In a Senate inquiry report on the deportation bill that Labor attempted to rush through the last parliamentary sittings, the opposition criticised the government’s “flagrant disregard” for legal groups and Iranian, South Sudanese and Zimbabwean communities who condemned the bill.

“The concerns of multicultural communities need to be heard,” Coalition senator and inquiry committee member Paul Scarr said. “Diaspora groups were blindsided by this bill.”

The opposition’s humanitarian push to soften the deportation laws comes as its frontbench accuses the government of failing to protect the community from criminals released into the community after the High Court decision last November outlawed indefinite immigration detention.

More on the issue here.

Pressure on Treasurer Jim Chalmers to deliver cost-of-living relief in next week’s budget without driving up inflation has increased after the Reserve Bank revealed it expects price pressures to grow through the rest of the year.

The bank, which held the official cash rate at 4.35 per cent following its meeting, sharply raised its inflation forecasts and downgraded its outlook for the economy. Inflation, now at 3.6 per cent, is expected to lift to 3.8 per cent and remain at that level until the end of the year.

RBA governor Michele Bullock said the board believed interest rates were in the right place to get inflation back within its target range of 2-3 per cent next year, but warned they could go up if price pressures failed to abate.

“I hope that we don’t have to raise interest rates again. Having said that, if we think we have to, we will,” she said.

Catch up on the full story here.

Returning to Australia, private training colleges are being sent federal orders to stop recruiting fake overseas students and cease their exploitation of the visa system, in a new move to tighten the rules and cut the nation’s migration intake.

The official warnings identify the most concerning conduct by colleges that bring thousands of students into the country each year, telling the owners they will lose their licences within six months if they do not improve their operations.

The sanctions follow other federal actions that have cut offshore student visa grants to 223,000 since July, putting the program on track to fall from the intake of 370,000 last financial year.

The government believes the student intake passed a key point in March when the numbers fell below the level seen before the pandemic, with 68,540 visa grants in the first quarter of this year compared with 68,960 in the same period in 2019.

Here’s the full story.

Two of the three men charged with killing Canadian Sikh separatist leader Singh Nijjar made a brief first court appearance.

The killing of the prominent activist became the centre of a diplomatic spat after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in September that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement.

Nijjar – an Indian-born citizen of Canada – was a plumber and a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland in India, known as Khalistan, for which he had heavily campaigned. The separatist leader was called a human rights activist by Sikh organisations and a criminal by India’s government.

Canadian police said they arrested the three Indian nationals in Edmonton, Alberta, for shooting and killing the 45-year-old in his pick-up truck after he left the Sikh temple over which he presided in the city of Surrey.

Kamalpreet Singh, 22, Karan Brar, 22, and Karanpreet Singh, 28, have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Brar and Karanpreet appeared in court via a video link and agreed to a trial in English. They were ordered to appear in British Columbia Provincial Court again on May 21.

Kamalpreet didn’t attend the court session as he waited to speak to a lawyer.

Richard Fowler, the defence lawyer representing Brar, said the case would eventually be moved from the British Columbia Provincial Court to the Supreme Court and combined into one case.

About 100 people gathered outside the courthouse waving yellow flags and holding photos of Indian government officials whom they accuse of being involved in Nijjar’s killing.

Canadian police say the three suspects had been living in Canada as non-permanent residents.

AP

Good morning, and thanks for your company.

It’s Wednesday, May 8. I’m Caroline Schelle and I’ll be steering our live coverage for the first half of the day.

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